


Acatalepsy

by Bayzen



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Follows show closely, Irregular Updating, New Supernatural Creatures Not in Show, OC is Allison's cousin, OC is a Hunter, Sexual Content Later (it's a slow burn fam), Slow Burn, Underage Warning bc characters are in high school, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:08:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 36
Words: 67,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24594310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bayzen/pseuds/Bayzen
Summary: Natalie Isserman wanted two things from her sophomore year of high school. The first was to make starting line for the lacrosse team. The second was for their time in Beacon Hills to be short, sweet, and to the point like almost every town and city before it.She was going to get only one of those.[[“There are a lot of times I wish I was really yours and Vic’s.” She said quietly. “But times like this, when I know I’m going to disappoint you, it just makes me feel worse.”]]
Relationships: Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Isaac Lahey/Original Female Character(s), Lydia Martin/Jackson Whittemore
Comments: 27
Kudos: 56





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Acatalepsy (noun) [ey-KAT-l-ep-see]: the idea that no more than probable knowledge of anything is available to human beings.
> 
> This is is just a fun little project for me, and I have a lot already written (100k+), but with parts missing throughout. As such, updates are going to be sporadic and kind of on a whim, which I apologize for. Since I've enjoyed writing this so much, I thought some of you may also enjoy reading it!
> 
> It starts off pretty crappy, not gonna lie, but there was only so much I could do with the mediocrity of the plot writing for season one...

Natalie’s hands held her lacrosse stick so tight that her fingers were white from the knuckles down. Coach was supposed to pick the first line based on the team’s performance tonight. As she watched Scott McCall catch three shots in a row, her stomach dropped. She had thought she had a chance this year.

There were only three girls on the lacrosse team. Technically their conference was coed, but typically panned out in favor of male-dominated teams. Being that the other teams in the conference usually liked to play more rough than was really necessary – a hazard of being back to back state champs, apparently – it was hard to convince the female student populace to join unless they didn’t mind the prospect of some bruises and sprains _all season_. And weren’t afraid to end up with a broken wrist or ripped tendon. Not to mention what a pain in the ass Coach Finstock could be. Natalie assumed most girls were smart enough to steer clear.

She had joined the team somewhat late the year before and Coach had been adamant that she was _too_ late to make it onto the first line, even though she was convinced that she was better than some of the guys that had been on the first line. They still won state, however, so she didn’t think Coach cared at all. But this year she had been training harder. And here was McCall, suddenly playing like a prodigy, threatening her spot on starting line.

She knew something was up with him, but quite frankly, she couldn’t be bothered to care.

She stepped up to the front of the shooting line. Scott hadn’t missed a single one of the last half-dozen throws. She needed to shake him if she was planning on impressing Coach. A quick calculation of where he was, the distance to the edges of the goal, and his reflexes ran through her mind right before she lurched forward, sending the ball from her stick into the netting in the bottom left of the goal.

“Good one Isserman!” Coach shouted, punctuating each word.

She marched back to the end of the line, scooping up another ball from the ground as she did. She could feel the team’s eyes on her as she passed them and felt smugly proud. She had to fight off the arrogant smile that threatened to land on her lips.

Her eyes flicked over to the stands, where her cousin was sitting with Lydia Martin. The brunette gave her a thumbs up.

The rest of practice wrapped up and Natalie and the other two girls on the team went back to the girls’ locker rooms to shower and change.

“You still trying to make line this year, Nat?” The older girl, Becca, asked.

Natalie glanced at her as Becca pulled her helmet off, her red curls tumbling out, a loose ponytail barely holding it together. “Hopefully.” She said, pulling off her gloves and cleats. “We’ll see, though.”

“I for one thought you did great, Nat.” Nicole, the younger girl said, sitting on a bench to untie her shoes. “That shot on goal when McCall was on fire? Killer.”

“Beginner’s luck on his part.” She said cheekily.

“Not even Jackson scored on him.” Becca said doubtfully. “You better hope McCall isn’t trying for the same position as you.”

Nat laughed as she pulled off her jersey, “Did you see the pissing contest between Jackson and McCall?” She prompted, “He’s going to try out for forward just to get under Jackson’s skin, I can guarantee it.”

Nicole giggled and Becca gave Nat a knowing look. “Don’t get cocky.”

“I’m not cocky.” Natalie argued. It was a barefaced lie, and she knew it, but she didn’t need to admit to it.

Becca shook her head. “I’ve heard that before.”

“There’s one more practice before first line is announced.” Natalie said, “I just need to keep my momentum.”

* * *

The second practice had her nerves high and her heart hammering. It was first elimination, the last ones standing got to play. The rest got to sit. She twisted her hands around her lacrosse stick nervously as she waited for the whistle to announce the start of their scrimmage.

She looked up the field where Scott and Jackson were facing off for possession of the ball. She was right of course, McCall was going big or going home, trying for center forward, the same position that Jackson played. She didn’t particularly like Jackson, and had a hard time understanding why Lydia liked him so much, but he was a fantastic player, their captain, and a big part of the reason they made it to state the year before. She could tell McCall was going to throw a wrench in their team dynamic. She wasn’t sure if she was excited, or dreading it.

The whistle blew and she lurched forward, expecting Jackson to have picked up the ball. It looked like McCall had beaten him, though, and was darting around him straight for Natalie. She stood her ground, fully expecting to check him as he passed, but when he was hardly a foot away, she noticed something that knocked her breath out of her. She halfheartedly lifted her stick to try to knock his, but he twirled away, leaving her with the answer to why he was suddenly so good at the sport.

Scott McCall was a werewolf.

Her eyes turned to rest on her cousin, who was in the bleachers, standing up in celebration for McCall’s unbelievable race up the field and consequential goal. Her mind reeled. No, she needed more proof. She couldn’t tell Allison’s parents. Not yet. He was a _teenager_.

Her head turned to see Coach announcing to Scott that he’d made first line and her stomach clenched. That’s what she needed to focus on right that second. First line. Scott McCall and his oddities were at best a problem for later.

She played her heart out on the field, convinced she made a glowing impression. She showed that she could work well with Jackson as his center midfield, and even played behind Scott a couple times, but kept her distance, just in case.

The team gathered after practice to hear Coach’s decision for first line. She listened through the goalies, defense, and finally they got to midfield. Coach listed off the same as the previous year’s right midfield, with the exception of Becca making sub. Left midfield was just called for a sub, the first line probably either not there or Coach just hadn’t decided yet. And then-

“Center midfield, Isaac Lahey-” Coach said, hardly taking a breath to continue listing off forwards.

“ _Lahey_?” Natalie objected incredulously. The majority of the team turned to look at her for her sudden outburst, including the boy whose name she had spoken. She refused to let embarrassment show on her features.

“Is there a problem, Isserman?” Coach demanded.

“No, Coach.” She returned despite her jaw being tight with anger. _How did Lahey make first line before her_?

She ignored the rest of his speech, seething. As they went back into their respective locker rooms, Natalie kicked the bench in front of her locker before dropping onto it. The other two girls looked sympathetic, but were used to Natalie’s methods of venting her frustration.

“You should talk to Coach, Nat.” Becca said, “You should be on first line.”

Natalie didn’t say anything, too upset to trust any words to come from her mouth. She sat for a moment before rubbing her face with one hand before standing back up to get cleaned up and changed.

She took Becca’s advice and headed towards Coach Finstock’s office right after she’d put on the clothes she’d been wearing earlier for school. As she left the locker room, she almost collided with someone walking past the door. She hadn’t been paying attention thanks to her poor mood and irritation. Her eyes flicked up to see none other than Isaac Lahey brush past her after leaving his own locker room. She refused to feel ashamed of her behavior earlier, even though it had basically told the entire team that she thought she was a better player than Lahey. Which, while she _did_ think that, it was still not appropriate to admit.

Without comment, she continued on to the Coach’s office and knocked.

“What?” Came the demand of a reply and she pushed the door open.

“Can I talk to you, Coach?” She asked from the doorway, looking in at him sitting at his desk and organizing tapes, assumedly from their previous games against the team they would be playing on Friday.

He gestured for her to come in, but didn’t look up from the tapes in his hands, reading the captions that had been written on the covers regarding players, the teams, and the plays. It all looked like incomprehensible chicken scratch to her.

She perched herself on the arm of the chair opposite him. “Coach, I feel like I deserve an explanation as to why I didn’t get first line.” She said, unabashedly.

“You are on first line.” He disagreed, still not looking up at her.

“N-” She went to speak, but he spoke before she got a full word in.

“Or, you will be.” He finally stopped shuffling the tapes and turned his eyes on her. “You’ll be a left midfield.”

Confusion flashed across her face for only a second. “Coach, I’m center.”

“Not anymore.” He said, “We only have three lefties on the team- we can’t keep you in center if we can use you to strengthen left field.”

She understood his reasoning, but she still didn’t like it. She knew he hadn’t announced her at practice because she firstly needed _some_ experience before it would be fair to the team to put her there, and secondly because she _definitely_ would have tried to argue with him. “But what about Jackson?” She prompted, grasping at any argument she could find for him to keep her in center. “I worked midfield with him all of last year, we’re a good team-”

“You’ll be doing the same thing, Isserman, just three yards to the left.” He interrupted her, deadpan, as if he were talking to a child. Coach was good at that.

She rolled her eyes. “I want to point out that I’m still not happy about this.”

“If that’s all, Isserman, I need to find an AV cart. Greenburg is going to need to watch all of these if he’s going to be ready for the game.” Coach held up the tapes and stood up from his desk. Natalie reluctantly took her leave.


	2. Chapter 2

“What about this one?” Allison asked, stepping away from her closet, wearing a black blazer-style jacket.

“Allison, you look great, like you did in the last four outfits.” She said, her face propped up on her hands, laying on her stomach on Allison’s bed.

Allison sighed and moved to sit at her desk. “I’m just nervous. This is my first party here. And I’m going with Scott-”

Nat’s stomach clenched at the mention of McCall, her mind flashing back to when she’d caught the scent of a werewolf on the field- just as he’d brushed past her. She knew she was stupid for not figuring it out sooner, for not making sure Allison would be safe, but she also knew that the party was going to be a huge social event, the only time Allison would be alone with Scott would be in his car, and Nat had every intention of tailing them.

“You will be _fine_ , Alli.” She said, “Just promise you’ll call me if he does anything weird.” She said, making a slight face. “McCall isn’t the most normal person at Beacon Hills.”

Allison rolled her eyes in response and stood up, headed back to the closet assumedly for the last piece to her clothing puzzle: shoes. “But like, he’s _okay_ , right?” She asked.

Her cousin had only moved there that month, whereas Natalie had been living there for several already. Chris and Aunt Vic had blamed it on the college dual-credit classes that Allison was taking, but the truth of the matter was that Natalie had been in Beacon Hills checking the credibility of their lead along with a couple of the other hunters that worked with the Argents. Regardless, Natalie was Allison’s fount of knowledge when it came to Beacon Hills High School. When Lydia wasn’t around, anyway. Leave it to her cousin to immediately become BFF’s with the most popular girl in the school.

Natalie shrugged, “Yeah.” She said, looking down at the book she had in front of her, a French translation of Jane Eyre that she needed to finish in less than two weeks if she didn’t want Miss Morrell to grace her with her first failing grade in the second language course. “He’s okay.”

Allison picked up a pair of booties and regarded them with what Natalie would consider an _unreasonable_ amount of intent, then pressed her lips together and looked back at Nat. “You should come.”

“What?” Natalie said, honestly surprised.

“Just in case, you know?” Allison said, “And you never _do_ anything- why don’t you come with?”

Nat was already shaking her head. “I don’t do parties.” She said. “Besides, Lydia will be there for you if-”

“But it’s not the _same_!” Allison very nearly whined. “I got to see you like, what? Every other week for an entire _semester_. I missed you! Please come-”

Natalie hadn’t expected so much protest from her cousin. She winced. “I missed you too, Alli, but I _really_ don’t like parties.” She said, wishing she could shrink into the space between the pages of her novel. Her cousin crossed her arms and looked at her seriously. “Can’t we do something else this weekend or something?”

Allison took a deep, pointedly dramatic breath, “Okay, fine.” She dropped her shoes and started toeing into them. “But _I_ get to pick what we do.”

“I’m not getting manicures.” Natalie warned. Her cousin just smiled coyly and grabbed her purse before making for the door. “ _Allison_!”

“See you later, Nat!”

Natalie groaned and slammed her book shut, flicking off the light switch before she ran down the stairs after the brunette. Allison was at the landing by the front door, peering out the window beside it.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Natalie called as she headed for the kitchen.

“Then I wouldn’t be doing _anything_!” Allison returned, then a couple moments later, “He’s here! Bye!”

Nat shouted the parting word back as she passed her Uncle Chris, who was seated at the kitchen counter sipping a cup of coffee. He was preparing for a long night by the looks of it. Natalie grabbed a pair of sneakers near the door that adjoined the garage and the house and started tugging them on.

“Are you going to the party, too?” Chris asked.

“I’m going to follow her there.” She answered, stooping to tie her left lace since it was already half-undone. “You guys are going for a sweep of the woods tonight, aren’t you?”

He nodded. “That’s a good idea. It’s a full moon.” He took another sip from his mug. “Call if you see anything, and be careful!” His volume increased as she tugged the door open and ducked through it.

“Got it, Uncle Chris!” She yelled back as the door swung shut and she headed for her car.

She didn’t notice anything unusual as she followed blocks behind Scott’s sedan until she watched it pull up to the curb near Lydia Martin’s house. Satisfied that her cousin would be safe in a house full of people – safe enough to take care of herself, anyway – Natalie made her way back home. She felt pretty confident that Chris would be proud of her diligence, until Allison came back hours later and stormed into Nat’s bedroom.

“I don’t want to say you were right.” Allison said, arms crossed and her jaw tight as she stood just inside of the door. It was getting late, and Natalie had stayed up studying while she waited for her cousin to get home. “But you were _so_ right.”

Nat’s eyebrows arched and she played with the edge of her calculus book as Allison strode the rest of the way into the room and dropped onto the desk chair across from her. “You look like you survived.” She observed.

Allison fixed a deadly glare on her, “He _totally_ ditched me!” She said, “Everything was going great, and then he just randomly freaked out and drove off.”

Natalie’s lips parted and she took a moment to stare at her cousin in surprise. Her opinion was that it was better that Scott took off than if he had lost control at a party that he was at with Allison, but that wasn’t really something she could comment on with present company. “Did he say anything?” She asked.

“No.” Allison said bitterly, “But his friend Derek was there, and he gave me a ride home.”

“Derek?” Nat repeated. There weren’t any _Derek_ ’s she knew of at school that would hang around Scott.

“Yeah, he’s older, drives a Camaro.” She offered.

Natalie’s gaze shifted towards the floor. She realized she’d need to look a little deeper into the situation with McCall.

* * *

She watched as McCall went for a second attempt at getting past Jackson and checked him so hard that he was thrown over McCall’s back and rolled, clutching his shoulder in pain and not rising again. Scott in turn dropped to his knees. Coach and the team ran to Jackson’s side, and Stiles to McCall’s. With the team distracted, the two of them made a break for the locker rooms.

Natalie watched from where she had been in the line for their drill. Clearly McCall was inexperienced. That was a fact she couldn’t refute. She knew he hadn’t been a werewolf the year before, and now he was hardly able to keep his cool on the lacrosse field. She looked off to the right of the field, where she could see a figure in her peripheral.

A man, a few years older than her, tall, dark, and obviously brooding, even from this distance. The way he watched Stiles and Scott run back to the school made her interest pique. It was an intent look. Like he knew something about them. She watched him for a moment, the rest of the team too busy making sure their ticket to state was unharmed to care what she was doing, or what Scott and Stiles were doing, apparently.

After practice – which Tweedledee and Tweedledum didn’t return to – Natalie strode out the main entrance of the school to the primary parking lot. She’d driven her car to school that morning, so she couldn’t just hitch a ride in the Tahoe with Chris and Allison, much to her dismay. She was exhausted. All this worrying about the _Scott_ situation was sucking the energy from her.

As she walked down the cement, however, she saw an unfamiliar Camaro parked at the curb, and she could just barely make out the face of the man she’d seen at the edge of the field during practice. She should catalogue his features and report back to Chris-

He caught her staring.

She set her jaw and stepped around the front end of the idling coupe. Even this far from the open window she could smell the tell-tale trace of werewolf.

“You’re a Hale, aren’t you?” She leaned down slightly to look in the car, hands stuffed into the pockets of her track jacket, duffel bag dangling from her shoulder. She’d done her research, of course, like she always did in a new town. She knew about the Hales. The fire. The survivors.

“Excuse me?” His voice was taut like the plate of a bear trap. It felt as if she wasn’t careful enough, he’d make her regret it.

“Your name.” She pressed, undaunted.

His head tipped slightly as he leaned back in the driver’s seat and he cast her an analytical look. She didn’t like that look. “You brought the Argents here.” He stated, ignoring her question.

“I _am_ an Argent.” She countered. “Also, it’s not nice to make accusations about strangers-”

“You’re _not_ an Argent though.” He disagreed. “What I don’t understand is why a therianthrope would be working with hunters.” He continued, fixing a glare on her.

She glared right back, anger boiling up at the mention of what she was. “I _am_ a hunter.” She snapped.

“Sure you are.” He said, sounding bored. He looked away from her. She wanted to reach in through the window and smack him. Even if she was stupid enough to talk to a werewolf despite it being against every warning her aunt and uncle had ever given her, she wasn’t quite dumb enough to attack one. “I have to admit,” He said, “The fake name was smart.”

“It’s not fake.” She told him sharply, immediately wishing she’d kept her mouth shut. She didn’t want to give away any more information to him, but her selfish desire to have the last word betrayed her. “Either way, it’s not important.” She said, trying to brush past that little slip-up. “What’s important is what you know about who turned Scott.”

“Why do you think I’d know anything about that?” He looked back at her.

“Because, Beacon Hills isn’t very big, and you’re the first wolf I’ve found.” She said, “So-”

“And if I _did_ know anything, why would I tell you?” He interrupted her.

She pressed her lips together, regarding him in annoyance. “Because I’m better at asking nicely than my uncle is.”

He didn’t seem to be concerned about that thinly-veiled threat. In fact, he gave the smallest shake of his head. “I’m not telling you anything.” He deadpanned, “And I have places to be, so if you don’t mind-” He reached down and tugged the shifter before the engine gave a quiet growl and the car peeled forward, leaving her in the parking lot with more questions than she’d had that morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Blood_Rose21 for the kudos on the first chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

“You invited McCall?” Natalie asked Allison under her breath as they sat down for French class. She felt her stomach twist, but felt like a jerk for asking. She knew that Allison had a crush on Scott. She shouldn’t be surprised… and now she just sounded like an asshole judging her cousin’s choice in boys.

But did it _have_ to be a _werewolf_?

“Yeah.” Allison replied, unperturbed.

“But he blew you off at Lydia’s party.” Natalie remarked.

“And he apologized, so I’m giving him a second chance.” The brunette returned matter-of-factly. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“Non,” She said as the bell rung, switching to French knowing that Miss Morrell required advanced course students to speak it _exclusively_ in the classroom. Allison and she had both learned the language – conversationally, at least – alongside English as kids, so they had an advantage. “Rien du tout.”

“ _Sure_.” Allison muttered under her breath.

Natalie turned back around to face the front, thinking about how horribly Friday could go. McCall _could_ go wolf on the field and slaughter everyone at the lacrosse game. Her right hand gripped the side of her desk tightly. She needed to convince Coach to let her on that field with McCall. She had to be out there in case something happened. Particularly if Allison’s parents decided to come to the game, too.

She should have just told her Aunt right away. But now she was far enough in that she was reluctant to let the secret slip so easily. Especially since she’d stopped watching after Allison prematurely at Lydia’s house, and she was now dead positive that _Derek Hale_ had given her cousin a ride home. She didn’t want to be the one to put herself into trouble for that one.

The rest of the school day passed uneventfully, and after classes Natalie offered to help Allison unpack. She sorted through Allison’s closet idly, arranging her clothes and organizing away the out-of-season outfits. There was a prickle at the back of her neck that she’d been trying to ignore for the last couple minutes. She glanced over her shoulder to where the brunette was flipping through pictures. “Wanna close the curtains?” She said, “I feel like someone can just see straight in.” They’d started when it was still light outside, but now the dark outdoors made Peeping Toms’ jobs easier. Allison stood up and crossed the room, pulling the blinds shut.

Seconds later, there was a screech like tires on asphalt, followed by a couple thumps. Natalie and Allison hardly made eye contact before they both darted for the stairs and out the front door. When they made it out onto the lawn, Natalie saw a figure lying on the ground near her uncle’s still-running SUV, and Chris leaned over the person he must have hit.

“Dad-” Allison began, “Dad, what the hell are you doing?”

“He came out of nowhere, Allison-” Chris started to say.

Natalie’s concern melted instantly when she rounded the front of the car and saw that it was Scott lying on the ground. _Peeping Toms_. She crossed her arms and clamped her mouth shut to avoid saying something inopportune.

“Are you trying to kill him?” Allison asked, kneeling down next to Scott, who looked utterly perplexed as his eyes flicked between the three people before him.

“No, no, of course not. He just ran out into the driveway-” Chris said. Natalie felt a morbid humor in the comment. If she had told Chris the truth, maybe it would have been less of an accident.

“I mean, it _is our_ driveway.” Natalie offered helpfully.

“I’m sorry.” Scott said, “It’s my fault, I’m sorry.” Allison asked if he was okay, and he assured her that he was, then apologized for hitting Chris’s car, which Natalie also found amusing and had to raise a hand to cover her mouth. Chris looked up at her for a moment before looking back at Scott. She feigned innocence. “I was just coming to say hi,” Scott told Allison.

Natalie could have puked at the lovey look that passed between her cousin and the werewolf, if it hadn’t set her nerves on edge. Chris helped Scott to his feet, and said something about needing to get to the lacrosse game. He asked Allison if she was still coming.

“Of course I am.” She said, looking up at him in a way that Natalie found distinctly flirtatious.

“We both are.” Chris broke in, clearly not oblivious to what Natalie was witnessing.

“They can’t miss out on my first game on line.” Natalie interrupted. “I need to get to the school too.” She said, looking at Scott. “I’ll give you a ride.”

It was clear that he wanted to find a reasonable way to decline her offer, but she’d already started walking towards the garage, which her car was parked in front of. She squeezed Allison’s arm as she passed, and her cousin forced back a roll of her eyes. She likely thought that Nat was just doing the ‘if you hurt Allison’ speech, but that was only half of it.

She pulled open the driver’s side door and slid into her car, tossing the keys into a small dish in front of the console, and pressing in on the brake and start engine button.

“Wow.” Scott breathed as he dropped into the passenger seat.

She fought back a shameless smile. Her car was far nicer than something a high schooler should drive, but she’d inherited a fair amount of money after the deaths of her parents and grandmother. Not to mention social security. Chris had been pissed when she bought the car without his approval, but he’d eventually calmed down about it.

“So you live with the Argents now?” Scott asked as they rolled out of the driveway and onto the street.

“I have the whole time.” She replied, “My parents died in an accident before I can remember. Chris and Aunt Vic are my legal guardians. I only moved down here first because Allison was taking dual credit classes in San Francisco and I wasn’t.” It was technically true, albeit not the full truth. Only a little bit of a lie. Chris had come down to visit a couple days each week, but otherwise left her to her own vices. Her grandmother raised her to be independent and efficient on her own, so it didn’t particularly bother her. It just sucked not getting to see Allison much. They were usually inseparable.

“I’m not going to waste my breath on a ‘big brother’ type talk. I expect you already know.” She said after a moment.

“Yeah,” Scott agreed, “I know.”

“Good,” She said, “Then I’m going to give you one tip-” She began. “Let’s assume that you weren’t just stopping by to say hi to Allison.” She said, “And let’s assume you were – I don’t know – on the roof, looking in windows. Let’s _also_ assume that I have an uncanny ability to know when those kinds of things are happening, and that I have really good aim with a shotgun.” She finished, glancing over at Scott, who was whitefaced, staring at the street ahead. She let her _theoretical_ threat sink in for a moment. “Moral of the story, don’t be creepy.” She said. “I like you enough, Scott, but you’re being kind of weird.” She didn’t bother to mention anything about him being a werewolf. She figured that the more people didn’t know she knew, the more of an upper hand she could have if something bad happened.

“I didn’t mean to look in windows-” He started to try to defend himself. “It was an – accident.”

She shook her head slightly in incredulity. “You being on the _roof of our house_ was an _accident_?” She demanded.

“I- ah,” He started to fumble for a response as she pulled the car into a stall in the school parking lot, near the field.

“Save it, McCall,” She said, pulling the keys from the console. “I don’t want to know.” She looked at him. “Just don’t let it happen again.” She shoved the door open and he abashedly did the same.

After she’d changed for the game and walked out to the field with Becca, Allison had caught up with her.

“Good luck,” Her cousin told her, grinning.

“Thanks,” Nat told her, unable to keep herself from giving a smile in return. “I’m just glad Coach is letting me play.” She said, “I was worried.”

Allison waved away her sentiment. “I’m going to get some popcorn from concessions. I’ll be cheering for you!” She leaned in and gave her cousin a hug before heading off towards the concessions truck.

Natalie walked over to the bench, looking around the field and the stands. She assumed that Derek would be here tonight and it made the hair at the back of her neck stand up. She desperately hoped he wouldn’t try anything _right here_. She didn’t want to have to handle damage control. Especially if Chris found out that she knew more than she was letting on. She was supposed to be the informant. He’d forbade her from getting personally involved. She was too young, he’d told her.

Stiles and Scott approached the bench as they got ready to go on the field. Coach had Jackson in center forward, which she thought was a terrible idea following his shoulder injury, but she couldn’t criticize Coach since he was the one in charge of actually letting her play. Scott was right forward, which proved to make things somewhat more difficult for her since she was on the left side of the field.

As Natalie took her place on the field and the teams lined up, she glanced down the field at Scott. Really, he shouldn’t have been playing at all. Especially since she realized something was up once the whistle blew. Jackson quickly scored, and the stands erupted. Allison and Lydia were holding up a sign that said something about ‘luv’ing Jackson, and then their team gathered on the field for a small huddle, leaving out Scott, Natalie, and another underclassman. She glanced between them and Scott, who was staring in their direction intently. She could hear them say something about not passing to Scott from where she was a few yards away.

“Shit.” She breathed in frustration, watching Scott tense up, a flash from behind the mask of his helmet letting her know that his eyes were glowing. She fought the urge to run over to him. He _had_ to be able to keep it together.

She moved back to her position, hardly taking her eyes off Scott. She could cross the field in seconds if she needed to. Her gaze flicked to the stands, where her cousin and uncle were sitting. This would be a long game.

With the team very obviously ignoring Scott, and the score having risen to three to five, against them, she noticed his irritation growing and hoped to God that the boys would stop being jackasses soon, before she snapped at them. Finally, Scott caught the ball off the start and practically vaulted down the field to score a goal. She could see his eyes flash again as he turned back from the goal and walked back. The spectators screamed, oblivious to Scott’s looming transformation. She tried to push past the guy defending her, but the teams lined up for the next start before she could get to McCall.

The next play, an opposing player had apparently noticed something wasn’t right about Scott, and tossed the ball to him in fear, allowing Scott another chance to dart up the field and score, tying the game.

“Son of a-” This time, Natalie managed to catch up to him and seized his shoulder, knowing full well that it put her in danger if he was closer to shifting than she thought, but she didn’t really care. There were bigger issues at hand than her personal safety. She turned him slightly, to meet his eyes. They were bright yellow, and he was trying unsuccessfully to conceal his fangs. From under his helmet, she couldn’t quite tell if he was surprised or disconcerted. “Calm down.” She told him sharply. The edge in her voice wasn’t just frustration, but nervousness that she wished she hid better. He didn’t respond, but she turned away to get back into position.

Once they’d started, Scott got possession of the ball again, but this time he stopped short, looking between the two defensemen standing between him and the goal. Her stomach dropped and she glanced at the stands, where Chris and Allison were. She jogged up the field, acting as though she was opening herself up in case he needed to pass, but she was really trying to get a better look at him. He finally surfaced long enough to make the final shot on goal, winning the game as the time ran out.

The crowd broke into a sudden ruckus of noise and movement, running out onto the field and patting the backs of their team. Natalie rushed forward as Scott ripped off a glove. She looked back at Chris once more, hoping he wasn’t as suspicious yet as he should be. When she looked back, Scott was already running back to the locker rooms. Natalie ran after him, not realizing that Allison was following her until they made it to the school.

“Allison- ?” Natalie began as she opened the outside door.

“What’s happening?” Allison asked, breathless from running, but not terribly concerned.

“I-” Nat began, “Can you- wait here?”

Allison made a face, narrowing her eyes. “Why?”

Natalie cleared her throat and looked around nervously. “Can you trust me on this one? Please.”

“Nice try.” Allison said, making a face at her. “I’m coming with you.”

“You’re impossible.” Nat muttered under her breath and pushed through the doorway, letting Allison follow her to the locker room. She heard the crashing of broken glass as they entered, and her skin crawled. Letting Allison into the locker room with a potentially fully transformed werewolf was a terrible, terrible idea. Her heart hammered as Allison called for Scott, oblivious to the nerves that had taken over her cousin. They turned a corner to see that one of the mirrors over the sinks had been shattered, and shards of glass were over the porcelain and the floor.

Natalie looked up as she sensed movement above them. She caught Scott’s form shifting in the rafters above them and hoped to God that he was merely hiding his shifted appearance from Allison. She looked back to where her cousin had been and saw that she’d stepped around a row of lockers. Natalie felt her skin tremble, but strode forward to where Allison was standing with her back against the lockers, clearly realizing that something wasn’t right.

The girls exchanged a look before Allison looked over to where the showers were and started moving towards them. Her red-haired cousin followed close behind, ready to jump in front of Allison and fight if necessary. They finally rounded the corner into the showers to see Scott leaning his forearms and forehead against the wall.

“Scott?” Allison asked. When he didn’t respond, she reached out a hand to grasp his shoulder.

Natalie stepped forward, tense, but Scott turned to look at them, unphased. She immediately relaxed.

“You scared me, are you alright?” Allison asked.

“Yeah… Sorry, I-” He looked between them as he turned to face Allison. “I just- got lightheaded for a sec.”

“Maybe it was the adrenaline.” Allison offered. “You were pretty amazing out there.”

“Oookay.” Natalie interrupted, rocking back on her heels and knowing it was well past her time to leave. “Well, I came to make sure Scott was okay, and he’s okay, so-” She gestured at the door and Allison smiled at her knowingly as the redhead turned and headed out of the locker room. Her heart was still pounding in her chest and she had to stop once she got outside of the locker room and lean against the wall. She’d have to have a talk with Scott soon.

“Isserman?”

Natalie’s head snapped up and she looked down the hall for the source of her name, but she already recognized the voice. “Stiles.” She returned as the boy in question approached her. He went as if to enter the locker room and she reached out a hand. “Enter at your own risk. Allison’s with him.” She warned him.

He looked at her for a moment, an expression of contemplation on his face. Whether he was more contemplating if he should enter, or contemplating her warning, she wasn’t certain. Then he nodded and pushed the door open. A few moments later, Allison walked out, oddly smiley.

“You kissed him.” Natalie accused as they started down the hallway.

“Not-” Allison began.

“Oh my God,” Nat said, “You totally did!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not much, but French translations for those who don't want to look it up, but want to know what was said:  
> Non = no  
> Rien du tout = Nothing at all


	4. Chapter 4

The whistle blew announcing that their scrimmage had begun. This was Natalie’s favorite part of being in lacrosse. Games were fun, but they technically weren’t allowed to check during games because their conference was coed. Nat thought it was stupid. So, during scrimmages, when she wouldn’t get a yellow card, she made a point to check as many times as she reasonably could. It exasperated Coach Finstock, but to hell if Natalie didn’t have fun.

The scrimmage started out great. Jackson wasn’t being an ass, McCall wasn’t acting like a time bomb, and she had a couple assists for goals. Then Coach rearranged the lines to put her back in center midfield with Lahey in the position for the other team.

At one point, he caught the ball as a pass from one of the defensemen and started running up the field, Natalie the first player in his way to the goal, and between him and his forwards. She was tall for a girl, being only a couple inches short of six feet, but Isaac still had a few inches on her. If he tried to throw an overhanded pass, she wouldn’t be able to reach the ball. That was why when she saw him preparing to throw, she decided that she’d have to use her own force and his surprise to keep him from passing.

She lurched forward, running toward him at full-tilt. He clearly had been expecting her to slow down, since he continued his throw, his lacrosse stick basically unguarded. He didn’t intend for her to reach it before the ball left the netting of his racquet. But she only moved faster, stretching her arm out, her lacrosse stick aiming right for his to knock the ball from him. She succeeded, sending the ball bouncing harmlessly to the ground a couple yards away, and into the net of her teammate’s racquet.

The collision sent both her and Lahey to the ground, like the majority of her checks had thus far in the scrimmage. Holding back wasn’t exactly her strong suit. However, this time her racquet had somehow gotten twisted behind his, and she didn’t have the sense to let go. Searing pain tore through her shoulder as they hit the grass, Natalie rolling once from her sustained momentum. She looked up at Isaac, who seemed mostly fine, if not surprised that she’d purposely rammed them both to the ground. She wanted to ask if he was okay, but she didn’t dare speak with her arm burning like it’d been set on fire. Other than that pain, she couldn’t feel her arm or her hand. She couldn’t force it to push her back to an upright position. Panic alarms went off in her mind. This had happened before, when she’d been sparring with her defense trainer.

She pulled herself to her feet with her right arm, trying to make her limp left arm as unnoticeable as possible.

“Are you good?” Lahey asked her, already on his feet, offering her back her lacrosse stick.

“Fine,” She replied, her voice even despite the fact that her eye sockets felt pinched. She needed to get off that field. In the time it’d taken them to get their bearings back, her team had scored, causing a reset on the field. She used the opportunity to run to the sidelines where Coach Finstock was sitting. “Can you sub me out?” She asked, “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Bryant,” Coach shouted. “In for Isserman.”

She nodded her thanks, dropping her lacrosse stick at the bench and heading back towards the school. She propped her left arm by crossing her right one under it, and then jogged to the doors that lead into the hallway that housed the locker rooms. She ignored the sharp jolts of pain that each step elicited and shoved the door open when she got there. She collapsed against the wall once she was inside with the door closed. She took a couple deep breaths, her good hand reaching over to lightly feel her shoulder. Dislocated.

She couldn’t tell Coach. He’d bench her for the next few weeks to recover. She knew how to put it back, her trainer had done it for her before. She knew better than to attempt it herself. She could ask Scott, or-

She leaned her head back against the brick. She was stupid for always playing so rough. She was begging for this to happen.

“Isserman,” She heard the door shut after her name was called. The pain was muting her senses. She turned her head toward the sound, pushing away from the wall when she saw that it was none other than Isaac Lahey. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Did Coach send you?” She asked, dreading him saying yes. If Coach Finstock found out she was injured at all, he could keep her out of practice.

“No,” Isaac said as he approached her. “I thought it was suspicious that you ran off right after taking us both out.”

She nodded slightly, considering asking him to relocate her shoulder. “Do you promise not to say anything?” She asked.

His eyebrows arched slightly and he tipped his head as he stopped a couple feet away, prompting her to continue.

“I have a bit of a problem.” She said, yanking the neck of her jersey over her injured shoulder, displaying the sharp angle of her shoulder blade. It was beginning to bruise already.

“Holy shit, Isserman-” Isaac began to say, staring at her shoulder in disbelief.

“You’re going to put it back.” She said, seizing his wrist in her good hand and pulling him towards the girls’ locker room.

“I’m- what?” He demanded, but she already drug him inside the door and released him, moving to sit down on a bench.

“I can talk you through it, I just can’t do it myself.” She said.

“You’re not serious.” He prompted, frozen by the doorway.

“Deadly.” She told him. “Get over here.”

He reluctantly walked over to her. “You’re really not supposed to do this, you know that, right?” He said, kneeling beside the bench when she gestured for him to.

“I’m not sitting out. I’m finally on first line.” She laid on the bench, wincing at the pain in her shoulder. She reached her right arm under the bench and seized the opposite side of it to brace herself from moving. “I want you to pull on my arm – slowly,” He grabbed her wrist in one hand and her arm right above the elbow in the other. She tried to think about how much better it would feel once her shoulder was back in place, but it was hard to do so over the knifelike pain as he started to pull her arm straight out from her body. She gripped harder onto the bench with her right hand. “You pull like a girl, Lahey.” She said through her teeth.

He increased pressure faster, until she thought her right hand was going to lose grip and she’d tumble off the bench, but then there was an unnatural _clunk_ from her arm and it popped back into place. Isaac quickly let go and fell back to lean against the lockers behind him. She took a deep breath and laughed.

“That feels so much better.” She said cordialy, resting her hands on her stomach for a moment.

“You owe me, Isserman.” He told her, sounding less irritated than she thought he meant to.

She looked at him and laughed again. “I guess,” She said, taking a couple more seconds to lay on the bench before getting up.

They both stood, Natalie moving her left arm about gently. It still didn’t feel good, but she no longer felt like someone was stabbing her in the joint with a red-hot poker. She knew she shouldn’t go back out and play. Her shoulder needed rest, no matter her healing rate.

“We should get back out there before Coach assumes anything.” She said, crossing her arms again to hold her arm in place.

“You’re not going to try to play, are you?” He asked her when she went to turn towards the door.

She pursed her lips. “No,” She replied slowly. She hadn’t really made up her mind. What was she supposed to tell Coach Finstock?

He just rolled his eyes and moved past her to leave the locker room. She followed him.

* * *

“Hey losers.” Natalie said as she set down her tray and dropped into the seat next to Stiles, arching her eyebrows when they went silent and she glanced at Scott to see him staring.

“You know.” He accused.

“Know what?” She inquired innocently.

“Does Allison know?” He continued without waiting for a real response.

“My, we’re cryptic today.” She remarked, picking up her apple to peel the sticker off it.

Stiles looked at Scott seriously, ignoring her sassy comments. “We’ll figure it out.” He told Scott.

Suddenly, Lydia dropped her tray down next to Scott, shocking the boys into silence again. “Figure what out?” She asked.

Natalie smirked behind her apple as the rest of Lydia’s posse filled up the seats around them, with Allison on Scott’s other side. Stiles and Scott watched in confused disbelief.

The group broke into easy chatter, mostly about the bus driver who had been attacked the night before. Scott and Stiles slowly warmed up to the conversation after getting over their shock at the group that had taken over the table.

Nat was disinterested in the video that Stiles showed the group, releasing the victim’s name. She already knew. She’d been following news about the case closely. As of the time being, there were three werewolves in town that she could pin the blame on. But she knew there was really only one suspect.

Derek wouldn’t lose control on a full moon like a freshly turned wolf. If it had been him, it wouldn’t have been such a messy attack. So, it wasn’t Derek. She didn’t think that Scott was capable of it, either. The damage done to the bus was pretty extreme. Sure, Scott was far stronger than a human being now, but even then… And there were also the claw marks. She hadn’t seen Scott fully transform, so she shouldn’t make assumptions, but the wolf responsible would have had hands large enough to shatter a skull with one hand and a squeeze. Scott was too small. Which meant there was probably another, more seasoned werewolf hiding in Beacon Hills.

Suddenly Lydia tried to change the conversation to something more ‘fun’, which culminated in Allison, Lydia, Jackson, and Scott deciding to go bowling the next night, despite Scott’s obvious reluctance.

On the night in question, the girls were in Allison’s room as she sifted through her closet to find something that Lydia approved of. Natalie had her homework spread over Allison’s bed. Irritation threatened to creep over her at the fact that Lydia was taking Allison out without her. Her protective streak was always at its strongest with Allison. And now that Allison’s new _boyfriend_ , as the brunette had started to call him, was a werewolf, her anxiety was at an all-time high.

“You need to find a man, Natalie,” Lydia remarked off-handedly. “Then you could come with us on things like this.” The strawberry blonde had apparently noticed Nat’s nerves and read them as fear of missing out.

Natalie tapped her pencil on her math book a couple times. “I’m not into group dates.” She said, “Or bowling.”

“Hm,” Lydia hummed, looking off as if in contemplation. Allison finally turned around, holding a brown shirt up for Lydia to see. “Mm, pass.” Lydia said, feigning hesitation in her response.

Natalie ignored the two girls searching the closet as she focused back on her calculus homework. Her pencil glided over her notebook paper and she only looked back up when her uncle walked into the room. She pretended not to be interested as he told Allison that she wasn’t going to go out when there was curfew. Allison attempted to argue, but he cut her off.

As he walked out, she crossed her arms in frustration and stared after her dad as the door closed, fuming. Lydia looked amused. “Someone’s Daddy’s Little Girl.” She said.

Allison chewed a nail as she thought about something. Natalie watched her cousin for a verdict. “Sometimes.” She admitted, “But not tonight.” She walked over to pull on a beanie. It was clear that Allison was determined to go out. The cousins had long ago figured out that they had the same overpowering stubborn streak – there was nothing Nat could do to change the brunette’s mind.

“Remember what I said?” Natalie asked, hardly looking up.

“Call if it gets weird.” Allison repeated, rolling her eyes. She marched over to the window, pushing the curtains aside and pulling up the pane. She climbed out and jumped down from the roof. Lydia glanced at Natalie in confusion over the redhead’s nonchalant disregard, and ran over to look down at where Allison had landed. “Eight years gymnastics.” She breathed. “Natalie will cover for us; are you coming?” She pressed.

“I’ll take the stairs.” Lydia replied.

After the two girls were gone, Natalie packed up her homework and dropped it off in her room, grabbing a jacket on the way down the stairs. She found her uncle in the kitchen, cutting up an apple and eating pieces as he did. He looked up as the girl walked in.

“She left anyway.” He said, expecting it.

Nat shrugged her jacket on. “Do you know your daughter at all, Uncle Chris?” She asked. “She’s like me. Tell her not to do something and she’s more likely to do it.” She gave a conciliatory half-smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of her. And when she comes back- I tried not to let you into her bedroom to see that she was gone.” She turned and headed for the garage, snatching up her keys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to woodsofpeace for the kudos they left! Thanks!


	5. Chapter 5

Natalie was woken up in the middle of the night by her uncle turning on her bedroom light. “Wh-” She began to groan, then remembered that Chris’s sister Kate was supposed to be showing up late that evening.

“Kate called. Aunt Vic needs your help.” He told her before leaving her to get dressed and come down to the ground floor.

She pulled on a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt and went to the kitchen, trying to move quietly to not wake up Allison. She walked in to see her aunt pouring two cups of coffee for them, and a thermos for Chris, who was double-checking the supplies he’d packed.

“Is she okay?” Nat asked, gratefully taking the coffee that Vic had slid to her and dumping in an ample amount of creamer.

“Yeah, just shaken.” He said, then rethought his choice of words. “As much as Kate can be. She was attacked. She shot the wolf and it took off, so I’m going for backup.”

“You and I get to wait up for them.” Vic said with a smile. Even when it was meant to be gentle, it came across as fierce. Victoria was merciless and strong. She’d been raised as a hunter, for the position of matriarch. Her backbone and resilience kept the family and their allies together and powerful.

Natalie nodded sleepily, raising her mug to her lips as Aunt Vic pushed an earpiece towards her across the counter. It would be connected to one that Chris and any other reinforcements wore for this excursion. Nat was not surprised that she’d been woken up. It wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last. After all, she was supposed to take over for Vic down the line.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come?” She asked Chris as she hooked the earpiece on. She admired the leadership and strategy that went into her aunt Victoria’s work, but it didn’t make the waiting any less boring.

Chris set his bag back on the counter after having just started to pick it up. “I know this seems routine, but Kate was still attacked.” He told her, pausing before picking up the bag again and slinging it over his shoulder. “It’s too dangerous. We can talk again when you’re out of school, but for now you stay with your Aunt Vic.” He strode out of the kitchen and she reluctantly settled into a chair at the counter and pulled up a book on her phone. It was going to be a long morning.

When Chris and Kate finally arrived, Kate caught the redhead up in a hug, “My God, you’ve gotten stronger!” She said in approval, backing off to look at Natalie. “Kicking ass and taking names?”

She smiled at the woman, who she called Aunt, even though she really wasn’t. “I’m playing lacrosse.” She said in explanation.

Kate grinned. “Have you gone on a hunt yet?” She asked, then looking pointedly at her brother. “By your age I had already had a kill or two under my belt.”

Nat shook her head. “I’ve been training with Aunt Vic.” She said, shoving her hands into her hoodie pocket.

“And wasting your advantages as a therian?” Kate prompted, again casting a meaningful look at Chris.

Natalie bristled slightly at the word. “That has nothing to do with it.”

Kate smiled, “Of course not,” She said, “You’re a great hunter regardless.” Natalie forced herself to be calm and forget about her unsavory heritage for the sake of not souring her reunion with Kate. “Why don’t you go wake up Allison?”

Natalie did as she was told and started to get ready for school, listening idly to Kate and Allison catching up as Kate unpacked in the spare bedroom. A part of her wished she could be like Allison, talking about boys and classes and not having worries much farther beyond that, but she also knew she would never be satisfied with that alone.

Allison and Natalie rode together to class, since Nat didn’t have practice that night. The day seemed to pass normally until during her English class. She instinctively always sat near the exit, and as such, she couldn’t miss it when the scent of blood wafted under the door.

She shifted in her chair nervously. _Why was there blood in the hallway? Whose was it?_ It took her a couple more seconds to realize it didn’t smell right. _Werewolf blood_. She raised her hand and asked to be excused, to which she was given a lanyard as a hall pass and slipped out of the classroom. She followed the smell until she found none other than Derek Hale, leaning back against the wall near a corner in the hallway.

“The _hell_ , Hale?” She snapped quietly in case there was anyone in hearing range. “You’re not supposed to be here.” She stepped up to him. He had a layer of sweat on his forehead and was exceptionally pale, even for him. He looked up at her, but didn’t say anything. He looked like he’d keel over any second.

She realized suddenly that Derek might have been the werewolf the night previously. Attacking Kate. She had initially assumed that it had been the alpha that was causing so much trouble already. Or perhaps they’d gone after the alpha and gotten Derek instead. Maybe he was _working with_ the alpha. Her shoulders tensed up. “Why are you bleeding?” She asked.

“What did they shoot me with?” He pressed, ignoring her comments.

The fact that he was asking her that question firmly solidified the notion that it was either Kate or Chris who had shot Derek. “It wasn’t silver?” She prompted. Silver was the metal of choice for most hunters. It caused almost an allergic reaction in werewolves, creating a more harmful and harder to heal shot.

“Would silver do this?” Derek snapped, but the venom he intended was completely lost in his pain.

“I don’t know!” She replied honestly. “I haven’t gotten there in my training yet.” She admitted, looking down as a drop of blood hit the floor. “Jesus Christ, Hale-” She looked up and down the hallway.

She couldn’t help him. Not without betraying her family. She was already keeping her knowledge of Scott’s werewolf status to herself- she couldn’t help Derek. Not after it was her own uncle or Kate who had shot him, it would be a direct offense towards them. But here he was bleeding all over the school’s linoleum tile. She knew he hadn’t turned Scott. Or killed the bus driver. But she knew his eyes were blue. And she knew that meant he’d killed an innocent at some point. That alone was more than enough to warrant his death as far as the hunters were concerned.

“Are you going to help me, or finish the job?” He demanded.

“Neither.” She responded definitively, even though the word burned coming out. She wasn’t sure whether her impulse was to go one way, or the other. “Classes end in ten minutes. Get yourself outside. Scott will be by the bike racks. That’s all I can do.” She turned to walk away.

“ _Deponte_.” He growled.

She sucked in a sharp breath, pausing. That name. She _should not have spoken to him in the parking lot_. He knew too much, and now it was clear he’d put a few more pieces together.

Slowly, she turned back to him and slid an arm around his side, letting him wrap an arm around her shoulders. “You’re going to get me in _so much trouble_ , Hale.” She told him through her teeth, helping him to the stairs, down to the main floor, and out to the front. She leaned him against the stone arch near the doors. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.” She told him, moving to go back into the school just as the bell rang. She rushed up the stairs and back into the classroom she’d left, as the students finished filing out. She ignored the expectant look her teacher gave her and ran back out, dropping her stuff off in her locker and remembering that she didn’t drive her car to classes. She swore and grabbed her jacket. She’d have to commandeer Stiles’ Jeep or something. Allison couldn’t know about Derek.

But as she ran back out the doors, she saw Scott and Stiles loading a half-conscious Derek into the blue Wrangler and a line of cars forming behind them. She exhaled deeply in relief. It was no longer her problem.

She walked over to where Allison’s car was sitting in the line of cars just as she came back from talking to Scott where Stiles’ car had been. She slid inside and glanced at her cousin as the brunette dropped into the driver’s seat.

“So…” Allison began, which usually signified that Natalie might not like what she was about to say. “Scott’s coming over to study, and-”

“I’m not leaving the house so you can _study_.” Natalie made air-quotes with her fingers as she said it and looked over at Allison in earnest. “If that’s what you’re going for.”

“No-” Allison said, “No, of course not, I just-” Natalie’s eyebrows shot up. “Lydia suggested giving him a _taste_ , and I don’t really know-”

“I also don’t have any relationship advice for you,” Nat cut her off again. “In case you’ve forgotten that I’ve never had a boyfriend.”

“But you’re basically my sister, so what do you think?” Allison questioned.

“I think you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.” Natalie said. Allison rolled her eyes at the stereotypical response. But really, the idea of her cousin doing anything even remotely sexual with Scott made anger burn up her throat. A _werewolf_. Making out with her cousin? _Sleeping with_ her cousin? She could imagine the fury on her aunt and uncle’s faces. The fact that it was Scott, a socially awkward, and until recently, totally harmless teenage boy, made it slightly more bearable. “Seriously though, Alli,” She said, “Do _not_ do anything you don’t want to, because you’ll regret it. And you can always talk to me about things. And I will happily kick McCall’s ass if you want me to.”

“Ugh,” Allison said as they turned onto their street. “You sound like Kate.”

“Alli, I love you more than anything.” Nat said prophetically, “I’d break a hundred noses for you.”

Allison laughed, “Let’s hope you don’t have to.” She said as they pulled into the driveway and Scott came careening past them on his bike. “What the hell?”

“Jesus.” Natalie breathed, getting out of the car as Allison turned it off and stepped out, looking confused.

“How did you…” Allison began, stepping around the car. “You got here the same time I did?” Natalie didn’t wait to hear his answer as she went up the stairs to the front door and unlocked it, leaving it open as she kicked off her shoes at the welcome mat and the other two made it to the door.

“Don’t worry,” Allison said as Scott hesitated in the doorway and Natalie started to ascend the staircase. “Nobody’s going to be here for hours. Come on.”

Natalie found it fairly easy to ignore the noises from the other room, which her slightly enhanced hearing allowed her to pick up. Only when she heard Kate yelling about groceries did she realize that she hadn’t actually _heard anything_ from the other room in quite some time. She jumped out of her bed, where she’d been working on math homework and ran down the stairs.

“Natalie, groceries.” Kate announced, carrying in a paper bag and a jug of milk. Nat obediently ran out to the SUV and grabbed another bag, walking back to the house just as Scott and Allison walked out, still slightly flushed in embarrassment. Natalie assumed that they’d been caught fooling around somewhere in the house.

After groceries were all brought inside, Natalie walked back out of the kitchen to Chris leading Scott back into the house, apparently Kate had invited him to stay for dinner, and immediately the awkward tension in the house felt stifling.

Dinner was ready fairly quick, just an easy mix and match meal that needed to be heated up in the oven. Natalie sat at the table beside Kate and across from Scott. She wished she could sit next to Allison and hopefully keep her less anxious. Chris was doing the typical overprotective father thing and asking Scott uncomfortable questions, like if he would like a beer. Nat almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

Kate managed to change the conversation to lacrosse. Allison made a comment about how good Scott was, and Chris reluctantly said he was okay. Allison attempted to disagree, but spoke to Kate in order to avoid a full-on argument. Chris continued to bring up counter-points. The other end of the table, where Vic, Scott, and Natalie were sitting felt the strain like a physical presence.

“On second thought, I’ll take that shot of tequila.” Scott said suddenly. They all laughed slightly and started talking about more inconsequential things.

Scott left to use the bathroom as the meal started to wind down, and attempted to excuse himself for the night, but Kate demanded that he stay for dessert. They started with his job at the veterinary clinic, then onto his thoughts of the animal attacks, then Chris, not having lost heart in his attempts to make Scott as uncomfortable as humanly possible, began to describe the process with which a dog goes rabid. But Scott and Natalie both knew he was not talking about rabid dogs anymore. Chris knew about Scott. Kate probably knew too. And now Natalie was in for it. There was no way they could think she wouldn’t’ve known. Not with the heightened senses that being a crossbred afforded her.

Scott was sweating in the seat across from her. She was trying her damnedest to not do the same. After they were done, Scott was leaving and from where Natalie was on the couch with her phone, she heard Kate accuse him of stealing something from her bag. Chris stepped up to support her, and eventually Allison pulled a condom out of her jacket to make them shut up, saying that she’d been the one to go through Kate’s bag, not Scott. With that, he left.

Later that night, Natalie was still on the couch when Chris and Kate were discussing what happened the previous night. It became clear that they didn’t know about Scott at all. Chris just wanted to make sure that Scott was sufficiently afraid of him. She was relieved to know that she wouldn’t _yet_ be in trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to j_mar who was kind enough to leave kudos!


	6. Chapter 6

“I lost Allison.” Natalie said into her phone, bracing herself for the flurry of indignation and shock that was sure to follow. She leaned back against the wall in the girls’ locker room, having retreated there for privacy.

“You _lost_ her?” Her uncle Chris’ voice demanded from the other end. “What do you mean you _lost her_?”

“I followed her to school, we walked in, I left to go to my locker, and she wasn’t in our French class.” Nat explained. “I have called her a half a dozen times, I think her phone’s off-” She continued, her anxiety threatening to spill over into her words. She needed to keep her cool. She’d be no use to anyone if she panicked. She dug her fingertips into the cracks in between the bricks in the wall behind her.

“Do you have _any_ idea where she might be?” Chris asked.

“No, I have no idea-” Natalie answered. “You think I’d be calling you if I did?” She asked. What if the alpha had taken Allison hostage as a threat to their family? What if Derek had? What if Nat’s father’s clan had? And what a fucking day to do it, on Allison’s seventeenth birthday. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest. “Do you want me to go look for her?”

“No,” Chris told her calmly, clearly sensing the thread of desperation in her voice. “I’ll send Thomas and Roland to look for her. You stay in class.”

“But-” She began.

“Think, Natalie,” He told her, “You stay in class, keep your eyes open for anyone else missing, and listen for any hints at where she might have gone.”

“Right,” She said slowly, nodding to herself. “Okay.”

“She’ll be fine.” He added, but she thought that maybe he was assuring himself just as much as he was her.

She spent the rest of the day feeling like she was on the edge of a panic attack. The only thing she managed to pick up throughout the day was that Scott was missing too. She wasn’t sure if that settled her nerves some, or just made them worse.

It wasn’t until after parent teacher conferences had started after school that Allison finally texted her to let her know that she was okay, and Natalie wanted to rip her hair out in frustration. Apparently, Scott had thought it was a good idea to convince Allison to skip school and traipse around on the trails in the woods nearby as a birthday present.

Natalie was furious. At Allison for not _telling_ her. No warning, no nothing. But even more at _Scott_ , for being an all-around _dumbass_ and not knowing better than wandering around the woods where a dead body was found only weeks earlier. If she caught him alone, he was going to get a piece of her mind.

* * *

The following day, Allison was still half-avoiding Natalie, knowing that the redhead had been peeved over Monday’s events, so she sat next to Lydia in chemistry class to try to let distance diffuse the tension between the cousins. Natalie could hardly care who was sat next to her as the bell rang and she tried to copy down the problems that were written on the board as being the assignment due later that week.

Nat was very good at not paying any attention in class so she could instead just figure out the homework on her own and finish it before she ever actually needed to take it _home_.

“Hood down, Mister Lahey.” Mister Harris remarked from the front of the room, and from the shift in attention from the class’s occupants, Natalie realized the boy in question had claimed the other seat at her counter.

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye as he pulled the hood on his sweatshirt back, but kept his head ducked. He had the tell-tale purple blotch of a black eye. She quickly focused back on her scribblings. What did she care if he had earned himself a shiner? Other than the fact that he was not only nice enough to put her dislocated shoulder back where it belonged, but to _not_ tell anyone about it, including Coach Finstock.

Okay. Maybe she should care.

Mister Harris proceeded to begin class by handing out the tests that they’d taken the week prior, and Natalie hardly looked at hers before sliding it out of the way to keep trying to work through the dozen end-of-the-chapter problems they were about to be given for homework. However, she could feel a wave of dejected frustration from the boy sitting at her right and looked over again as he propped an elbow on the counter, temple resting in his hand and staring at the test he’d been handed back.

“You good, Lahey?” She asked against her own impulse to keep her mouth shut.

“Fine.” He said quickly, sticking the test in a random spot between the pages of his book. He was lying, of course. She could hear it in his pulse and the way his voice was strained.

She assumed he’d probably gotten back a poor grade, but what was she supposed to do about it? He clearly didn’t want to talk about it, and she hardly knew the kid.

She half-shrugged and went back to her assignment.

“Actually…” Lahey began to say, and she paused, looking over at him. “You’re pretty good with chem, right?”

Her eyes flicked towards her test, which was sitting at the corner of the counter with a glaring red _98_ scrawled at the top. “Are you going to ask me to tutor you, Lahey?” She prompted.

“Well, you owe me, right?” He returned.

The corners of her mouth threatened to turn up in a smile, but she fought it and leaned back in her seat. If she were honest, she was slightly impressed with the conviction in his tone. He hadn’t struck her as a very resolute person.

“Well played.” She said, “The titration assignment is due Friday, so we work on it… Thursday?”

He shrugged, “Works for me.”

The rest of classes passed in typical boring fashion, and by lunch on Wednesday, Allison seemed to have moved past the avoiding phase and gone back to normal.

“Did you know about this, Nat?” Allison asked, looking up from her book as her cousin and Lydia picked at their school lunch.

“No idea.” Natalie lied easily, trying to appear as disinterested as she possibly could as she ate a baby carrot and looked down into her dogeared copy of A Tale of Two Cities that she was reading for English class.

“Don’t you think it’s interesting?” Allison pressed, hoping to garner some sort of response other than off-handed boredom. When Natalie just shrugged, Allison turned to Lydia.

“The what of who?” Lydia asked, reluctantly giving in.

“The Beast of Gevaudan.” Allison repeated for the third or fourth time that day.

Natalie attempted to focus on her book. She wished she could tell Allison everything, all of the details of their family ancestry, and how it survived to present day. She couldn’t, of course. She thought Kate was stupid for planting the seed- Or smart rather, because Kate wanted to make it so that Chris _had_ to tell Allison and bring her into the family secret. But it pissed Natalie off. She’d spent her whole life keeping this away from Allison, and letting it create a rift between them that Allison wasn’t yet aware of, and Kate was slowly breaking that wall down. The least Nat could do was avoid getting involved so that Chris couldn’t be angry with her. But then… that meant that Allison would be _livid_ with her when she found out that Natalie had known these things all along, and had never told her.

She tapped her pencil rhythmically on the table to distract herself. For a moment she weighed the consequences of Chris or Allison being mad at her, but she knew she didn’t have the heart to betray Chris and Aunt Vic. After all, they’d agreed to adopt her after her grandmother had passed away, they’d continued her training, and treated her like their own daughter. She cared about Allison more than anything, but this secret kept her safe.

Eventually Lydia got tired of Allison’s attempts at capturing her interest and marched off to her next class. Allison continued to pour over her book, but no longer tried to convince Natalie to listen to the story. Instead, Nat turned her attention on McCall and Stiles, who were a table over. Scott had a history book propped in front of his face to keep Allison from noticing him. It was a poor tactic, even for McCall, which piqued Natalie’s interest. She caught bits and pieces of their conversation, but had to strain to pick up what they were talking about.

She almost thanked her heightened senses for the ability to overhear what a normal person wouldn’t, but caught herself. She hated thinking about why she was the way she was. About her _father_. At the end of the day, though, at least there was something good that came of the situation, she supposed.

The boys were talking about Derek teaching Scott to control his shift, but apparently Stiles was going to try to do it instead. It was an idea that Natalie thought was horrible, but she couldn’t exactly tell them without admitting that she was eavesdropping on them. Suddenly they got up and rushed out of the lunchroom. Allison called after Scott and ran after him. Natalie fought to not roll her eyes and started gathering their things.

Scott had no way to avoid Allison in their next class, since both the cousins, Scott, and Stiles all had economics together. Natalie walked in behind Allison and took the seat behind her cousin as Stiles attempted unsuccessfully to keep Allison from sitting behind Scott. The extent of Scott’s determination to avoid Allison was as much ridiculous as it was unprecedented. Nat didn’t think she’d ever seen someone so desperate to be ignored.

Allison tried to talk to him about being partners for some class, Natalie tried not to listen in, but McCall was awkwardly trying to make the conversation end without being too obvious. When Allison invited him over for later that night, his response was so painfully nonchalant that she could _feel_ her cousin’s mood plummet.

Natalie had been trying to avoid talking to Scott because she knew she’d have to suffer his questions, but she wasn’t about to let him stomp on Allison’s feelings without a good excuse. She might have to question him after class.

When she _did_ find Scott after school, she found him on the lacrosse pitch being pummeled with lacrosse balls at Stiles’ mercy, or lack thereof.

“Should I ask?” She called as she strode across the grass, hands in her pockets.

Stiles pulled back a toss right before he sent it and turned a stare on her. “Oh, I- uh- we-”

Scott just looked at his friend as if in secondhand embarrassment, though Natalie could hardly understand why when _he_ was the one wearing a heartrate monitor and his arms duct taped behind his back while being repeatedly slammed with lacrosse balls.

“I feel like I don’t actually want to know.” She added.

“Wait, you know what I am, right?” Scott asked.

“What?” She said, bored, “An idiot?”

“Scott!” Stiles reprimanded, looking at his friend, “You can’t- just-” He jerked his head towards her.

Natalie rolled her eyes. “Let me guess.” She said, shifting her weight slightly and glancing away as she thought of the best way to assemble her words, “You are what Derek Hale is.”

Stiles began to stare at her again.

“I _knew_ you knew!” Scott accused.

“Yes, I know, now-” She started.

“If you so much as _think_ about telling Chris Argent-” Stiles started to warn her, voice low.

“If I was _going_ to say anything, don’t you think I would have by now?” She said, “But don’t think I won’t if you do something unusually stupid.” She quickly added.

Stiles was looking at her with an amount of scrutiny that may have been intimidating… if it weren’t Stiles. “What exactly would you consider _unusually stupid_?”

“ _Stiles_.” Scott protested.

“What?” Stiles said, looking at the boy, shoulders bunching towards his ears, “It sounds like she’s calling us dumb-”

Natalie gestured at Scott, “You’re being willingly pelted with lacrosse balls, and you-” She turned to Stiles, “Had no better explanation ready than stuttering gibberish. So, yeah.”

Scott looked at Stiles and gave a half-hearted shrug. Stiles in turn made a dramatic noise and tossed his hands up, a lacrosse stick still clutched in one, “Fine, we’re trying to help Scott control the shift.”

Natalie looked between the two boys for a moment, “By giving him an aneurysm?”

Stiles looked affronted, “Look, there’s only enough room for one sarcastic asshole here, and it’s me, so-”

“Can you help?” Scott cut across him.

Natalie considered the idea for a moment, then shook her head.

“Great, what a waste of time-” Stiles began and set up like he was about to chuck another ball in Scott’s direction.

“It’s not because I don’t want to.” She said. “I just… don’t know very much about it.”

“Yeah, well, join the club.” Stiles shot at her, and punctuated it by whipping the lacrosse ball at Scott, who tried to duck out of the way unsuccessfully.

“But we know someone who does.” She added.

“Derek?” Scott prompted. Natalie nodded. He rolled his eyes, “Derek’s solution was basically to avoid everything.”

She gave a light lift of her shoulders, “Then maybe that’s what you need to do.” She offered.

“I’m not going to spend my life just _avoiding_ all the things that are bad- or good.” Scott argued.

“Like Allison.” Natalie remarked listlessly.

“Like Allison!” He agreed.

“You’re not doing a good job of winning me over here.” She commented.

“I just want things to be normal.” He said, and it tugged at her feelings in a way that she hadn’t expected, or been prepared for. “As much as they can be, I guess.”

She pressed her lips together and glanced at Stiles, who was looking at the two of them skeptically. “This isn’t my area of expertise.” She said, “But if I can help, I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for kudos & bookmarks! Hope you guys have a great weekend!


	7. Chapter 7

That night, Natalie’s attempt at finishing her heavily-procrastinated precalc homework was rudely interrupted by… _something._ She slowly moved to set down her pencil and looked at the darkness outside her window. There was _something_ , some low rumble that she could hear. She pushed her chair back from the desk and walked over, shoving the window pane up. Along with the crickets and distant chirp of frogs, the sound was faintly louder, just enough for her to tell what creature had made it. Werewolves.

Her heart jumped into her throat. She should tell her uncle so that-

_Once again_ , tell everyone what she’d found so they could go deal with it. Irritation burned hot inside her stomach. No, she was going to go this time. The only way she could convince them to let her go was to get there first. Judging the sound, she decided it was coming from the northwest, and was roughly three quarters of a mile away. That placed it somewhere near the high school. She ran down the stairs as fast as she could, completely foregoing a coat, and barely remembering to shove her feet into a pair of shoes before she darted out the door and to her car, careful to avoid making too much noise. She didn’t want to alarm Allison.

She drove well over the speed limit on her way to the school, and cut the lights as she pulled into the lot to see Stiles’ Jeep and Derek’s black Chevy Camaro sitting out front, but no one else in sight. She shifted into neutral to minimize the sound of her approach and listen for movement outside. As she got closer, it was clear that both cars were vacant. She pulled up on the other side of the Jeep and pulled the keys from where they rested on the console. Upon closer inspection, the hood of Stiles’ Jeep had been mangled by something. She pushed open the door and stepped out.

Silence.

She looked up and down the school building, and behind her at the tree line, but didn’t see anything. She pressed the trunk button and closed her door softly, keeping her attention on the surroundings. She didn’t want to be surprised. She walked back to the trunk and turned the knob and pulled up on the cover that would typically hide the spare tire, but instead there was a hollowed space that allowed for the storing of a few weapons. Chris knew she kept a flare and a handgun there for emergencies relating to the family business, but he didn’t know that she’d commandeered more weapons from her grandmother’s supply when she had passed away. Altogether, there was a handgun, a rifle, two boxes of appropriate ammunition, a couple knives of varying sizes, a handful of flares, and a generously-packed first aid kit.

Natalie grabbed the handgun, doing another sweep of her surroundings as she grabbed the box of bullets and loaded them before tucking her stash away once again and closing the trunk as quietly as she could. She shoved the gun into the back of her jeans for a lack of a holster and as a pitiful attempt to keep it out of sight as she started up towards the school.

The smell of blood hit her like a punch square to the face. She paused for a moment, then followed it to where she could see a faint splatter on the side of the building. Something had hit the wall, and fallen, leaving a copious amount of blood behind. Whatever it was had gone by now.

She looked around, thinking that if it had moved itself, it couldn’t have gone far with so much blood loss, but she didn’t see anything.

She turned back and headed to the door, which had been propped open with bolt cutters. She stepped inside, fighting the urge to pull her gun back out again. Her hopes of Scott and Stiles merely screwing off had been dashed after she’d smelt the blood outside. She’d kill them if they had intentionally gotten mixed up in this.

She paced the halls, hoping to find someone, but there were no signs of life to be found until a voice echoed its way to her. She froze. She knew that voice, even when it was distorted from bouncing off the walls, she would always know Allison’s voice.

She bit back a string of curses and took off in the direction that Allison’s call had come from. She rounded a couple corners, and finally found Allison on the first floor.

“What are you doing here?” Natalie hissed under her breath.

“What do you mean what am I doing here?” Allison said, dropping her voice. She’d picked up on Natalie’s urgency, but was no less confused by it. “Scott told me to come here. _Why are you here_?”

“Something’s not right.” Nat said, “You need to get out of here.”

“Me?” Allison prompted, “If something’s wrong, I’m staying with you.” She told her cousin sharply. Natalie clenched her teeth. The idea of Allison being in danger because of her tore her apart inside. “And we need to find Scott.”

“And Stiles,” The redhead added. “Since he’s McCall’s partner in crime, I’m sure they’re both here.” She grabbed at her cousin’s arm. “Come on.”

They resumed their search together, with no more luck than when they were alone. As they were passing through the pool, Allison got a call from Lydia and told her that she hadn’t been able to find Scott. Then Scott called on Stiles’ phone and told them to come to the lobby.

Scott and Stiles busted into the main lobby at the same time the girls did.

“Why did you come?” Scott demanded immediately. “What are you doing here?”

Natalie instinctively propped a hand on her hip so that she could easily grab her gun if necessary as she looked around at the doors. She tried to make it as inconspicuous as she could, but she caught Stiles glancing at her a couple times.

“Because you asked me to?” Allison told him.

“I asked you to?” Scott repeated, confused. Allison pulled up the text she’d gotten from his phone and showed it to him. “Why do I get the feeling you didn’t send this message?”

“Because I didn’t.” Scott said.

“Did you drive here?” Stiles interrupted, stepping up at Scott’s shoulder.

“Jackson did.” Allison replied.

“Jackson’s here, too?” Scott asked incredulously.

“And Lydia too, who-” Allison cut over him.

“You mean you brought more people here?” Natalie inquired sharply.

“You didn’t come with her?” Scott prompted Natalie.

Allison gave her cousin a scathing look. “ _Your_ car was already here-”

Natalie was spared from attempting to come up with a good excuse for being at the school when Allison’s phone rang. Nat could tell Scott later if she needed to, but she didn’t have a decent explanation to feed her cousin. It was Lydia calling Allison, and within seconds she and Jackson barged into the lobby as well. Natalie assumed that Allison had told them were everyone was.

“Finally.” Lydia said breathlessly as she marched up to them like she really wanted to scold them all. “Can we go now?”

Allison nodded her approval, but at the same time, the sound of movement above claimed their attention. 

“Run!” Scott shouted and they all took off in time to avoid the cascade of ceiling tiles as they tore off towards the stairs out of the lobby. The alpha broke through to their floor and chased them up the steps and down the following hallway. They made it into the cafeteria, where Scott and the others, excluding Stiles, began to barricade the door. Stiles was the only one to really think about their situation as he looked over at the massive wall of windows and tried to get their attention.

Natalie glanced over at him, propping one hand on her hip, the other dangling at her side, ready to grab her handgun if need be. She gave him a look to communicate her amusement at his attempts, but did nothing to help him. He merely took on a more irritated tone as he yelled at the others.

“Guys listen to me-” He said, “Wait a second-” They showed no sign of hearing him as they piled stacked chairs atop the freezer already in front of the doors. “Stiles. Talking.” Natalie arched her brows and watched him. “Can we hang on one second please?” Finally, he raised his voice. “Hello!”

They froze and straightened, looking over at Stiles.

“Okay,” He said, “Nice work- really beautiful job, everyone. Now,” He paused for a fraction of a second for effect, “What should we do about the twenty-foot wall of windows?” He gestured grandiosely at the glass behind him.

No one answered him.

“Somebody please explain to me what’s going on, because I am freaking out here.” Allison said, grabbing Scott’s arm, but looking between him and Natalie. She clearly knew that her cousin knew more than she let on. “And I’d really like to know why.” She glued her eyes on McCall. “Scott?” She pressed.

He broke away from her to lean on the table, glancing at Natalie as if she’d be able to tell him what to do. She stared back at him. She’d knock him out cold if he spilled their secrets to Allison. She’d fought her whole life to hide them, she’d rather take her chances attacking a newly turned werewolf in front of her cousin than let him ruin everything.

Allison looked at the redhead. “Nat, what- ?” Natalie gave a sharp shake of her head, convincing Allison to not press it, even though the brunette didn’t understand why. Jackson made a wild _what the hell_ type of gesture.

Stiles stepped up when Scott was still hunched over a table, unsure of how to explain himself. “Someone killed the janitor.” Natalie found her respect for Stiles rising significantly after the night’s proceedings. He was far more intelligent and perceptive than she gave him credit for.

“What?” Lydia demanded.

“Yeah, the janitor’s dead.” Stiles reiterated.

“What’s he talking about- is this a joke?” Allison asked, frustrated disbelief seeping through her tone as she looked between Scott, Stiles, and Natalie.

Natalie caught herself being unsurprised by Stiles’ statement, but remembered that Allison hadn’t experienced their lives the same way she had. Nat had been raised and trained to hunt and kill, and death wasn’t as shocking to her anymore after everything she knew about her parents, her grandparents, and her entire family. Allison had experienced the same losses, but was fed differing stories of how they happened for the most part.

“Wha- who killed him?” Jackson demanded.

Lydia looked like she’d seen a ghost. “N- n- no.” She said, “This was supposed to be over, the mountain lion-”

“Don’t you get it?” Jackson interrupted her sharply. “There wasn’t a mountain lion.”

“Who was it?” Allison snapped, looking at Scott. Apparently she’d decided that Natalie couldn’t have known this much and not told her. Nat felt a twist in her stomach. Allison’s trust in her was too much. “What does he want?”

Natalie’s eyes turned on Scott. She needed to talk to him and figure out what the hell was happening. She was fighting the urge to pull out her phone and call Chris. They needed backup, but she wasn’t sure if that would make things worse.

Scott still wasn’t answering, so Allison shouted his name, snapping him out of it. “I- I don’t know.” He said, his voice brittle. “I- I just- If we go out there, he’s gonna kill us.”

“Us?” Lydia repeated, clearly terrified. “He’s going to kill _us_?”

“Who?” Allison pressed. When Scott was still fairly unresponsive, she looked at Stiles, who looked terribly frightened that her anger was directed at him. “Who. Is. It?”

“It’s Derek.” Scott said suddenly. Natalie spun to face him directly, her head tipped back slightly in irritation. She knew better than that. She could tell he was lying, and though she certainly didn’t trust Derek Hale, she also didn’t think he’d go on a murderous rampage in such a messy manner. However, she also knew it was the best answer Scott had, no matter how incredibly shitty it was. He could have easily just stuck to the story that he didn’t know who it was. “It’s Derek Hale.”

Disbelieving confusion settled among them. They asked questions, but Scott insisted that it was Derek, that he’d seen him, and that Derek had been the killer all along. “And if we don’t get out now, he’s going to kill us too.”

A fiasco ensued when Jackson suggested calling the cops. Lydia attempted, but was hung up on, and more questions about Derek’s intentions were then demanded of Scott, who lashed out, sufficiently making Allison set her jaw and turn away from him.

Stiles grabbed Scott’s arm and pulled him away from the group. Natalie followed, uninvited. She stepped up next to Stiles, “Derek, really?” She said under her breath. A flash of confusion crossed their faces at her use of the name.

Stiles recovered first and hardly missed a beat in turning to Scott. “Yeah, throwing Derek under the bus, nicely done.” Stiles agreed.

“I didn’t know what to say, I had to say something.” Scott defended himself. “And if he’s dead, then, it doesn’t matter, right- except if he’s not-”

“Derek’s dead?” Natalie snapped, not realizing that she was moving until her hand closed around the loose collar of Scott’s jacket. The looks they gave her told her that they had no idea why she would be concerned. She refused to let go.

Honestly, she wasn’t _entirely_ sure why she was so invested, either. She supposed it had to do with the fact that Derek may have been the only person in town who might know who the Alpha was. And Scott needed _someone_ to teach him how to control the werewolf in him. Or that she’d gone against her common sense and helped keep him from dying the week prior and he may have _still_ ended up dead.

“He was attacked.” Scott told her. “It didn’t look good.”

“Son of a-” She broke off, but released Scott, crossing her arms so she wouldn’t lash out again. “So that was his blood outside?”

“You found the blood?” Scott asked.

“I could smell it from my car-” She began.

“ _Smell_?” Stiles prompted, “What _are_ you?”

“Are you a werewolf?” Scott asked under his breath. She could tell he’d been wanting to ask that since she’d given away her knowledge of his state at the lacrosse game.

“No,” She said, making it sound like the stupidest question she’d ever heard. “I’m a hunter.”

“But you’re not a human?” Stiles pressed.

“That’s not important right now.” She responded. “Right now we need to get Lydia, Jackson, and Allison out of here.”

Scott’s eyes trailed over to the other half of their group, “God,” He said, a realization coming to him, “I totally just bit her head off.”

“And she’ll totally get over it.” Stiles told his friend. “Bigger issues at hand here, like how do we get out alive.”

“But we _are_ alive. It could have killed us already.” Scott argued. “It’s like it’s cornering us or something.”

“So what, it wants to eat us all at the same time?” Stiles asked.

“No,” Natalie said, “Maybe it wants Scott to do something. This is the alpha who turned you, right?” They stared at her. “Just a guess.”

“No…” Scott said, “Derek said it wants revenge.”

“Revenge?” Natalie repeated.

“Against who?” Stiles asked.

“Allison’s family?” Scott offered.

Natalie’s blood turned cold. She brought them here. It was her fault. “No.” She breathed, her hand moving towards the gun, but she stopped and slid her hand into her back pocket instead.

“Maybe that’s what the text was about.” Stiles added, oblivious to the sudden change in Natalie’s attitude. “Someone had to send it.”

“Okay, ass-heads!” Jackson yelled, clearly fed up with the three of them discussing privately out of earshot of the other three. “New plan. Stiles calls his useless dad and tells him to send someone with a gun and decent aim. Are we good with that?”

With an irritated sigh, Natalie fought her hesitation and pulled the gun from her waistband and held it pointing up. The move caused a ripple of shock in the group.

“You have a gun?” Stiles asked, staring at her wide-eyed, one of his hands partially raised at her. She didn’t respond.

“Is that legal?” Jackson demanded at the same time Allison said, “Did you steal that from Dad?”

“Not exactly.” She replied, inadvertently answering both of their questions.

“Why the hell didn’t you have that out before?” Jackson snapped, taking an angry step in her direction. “You could have shot him when he was following us!”

“If you’d looked back, you’d know it wouldn’t’ve done much good.” She spat back, lowering the gun to her side.

“Jackson’s right, call your dad,” Scott said to Stiles, interrupting the tension in the group. “Tell him the truth if you have to, just call him!”

Natalie looked at him. “You think they’ll be able to do anything about an alpha roaming the school?” She hissed at him under her breath.

“I’m not watching my dad get eaten alive.” Stiles said quietly in agreement with her.

It would send Nat and Allison’s worlds crashing down, but Natalie knew that the right thing to do was to call her uncle. As she reached for her phone, though, Jackson lunged forward.

“Alright. Give me the phone.” He said, reaching for Stiles’ pocket. In return, Stiles punched him square in the face. Natalie thought the stumble that Jackson executed was too conspicuous, but her cousin ran to his side anyway.

Stiles reluctantly pulled his cell phone from his pocket and hit a speed dial. “Dad, hey, it’s me,” He answered when the call picked up. “Aaand it’s your voicemail. I need you to call me back now, like right now.”

At the same moment that Stiles hung up, the barricade at the doors Lydia was standing in front of shuddered at the force of something hitting them from outside. They all quickly moved away from the doors, huddling in the middle of the cafeteria. Natalie raised the handgun, pointing it towards the doors. Her arms didn’t shake, her grip unwavering. She’d never been in a situation that required her to draw a weapon, but she’d been trained for it her entire life.

“The kitchen, the door out of the kitchen leads to a stairwell-” Stiles said, his eyes not leaving the door as he shoved his phone back into his pocket.

“Which only goes up,” Scott said, the emotions in his tone causing his voice to grow louder.

“Up is better than here.” Stiles concluded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos again guys! <3


	8. Chapter 8

As screws began to give way in the door, they all ran towards the door at the back, Natalie bringing up the rear. They ascended the stairs as quickly as their feet would carry them, and ran through the hallway, checking doors as they went to find one that wasn’t locked, Lydia got lucky on her first try and shoved the door open to the chemistry lab, waving them in. Once they were inside Scott shoved a chair under the knob, which really wouldn’t do much, but apparently made him feel better.

They all stood in silence and waited to see if the Alpha would find them, waited for it to pass. Natalie held her gun pointing at the ground, but her arms were tense, in the event that the Alpha attempted to come into the room, she needed to be ready to fire. The application of her training felt surreal. Her eyes met Allison’s. She’d have to come up with an explanation for the gun and her stoic response to their situation. She wasn’t looking forward to it.

The sound of heavy footsteps padded through the hallway outside. They all froze, as if they were all holding their breath, which Natalie was sure they were. And then it retreated down the hall.

“Jackson, how many people can fit in your car?” Scott asked once the coast was clear.

“Five, if someone squeezes on someone’s lap.” Jackson responded.

“Five?” Allison objected indignantly. “I barely fit in the back.”

“My car can take five.” Natalie offered.

“It doesn’t matter, there’s no getting out without drawing attention.” Stiles pointed out.

“We’re getting out.” Natalie said to him quietly, giving him a pointed look.

“What about this?” Scott asked, gesturing to a door in the corner as he led the group over. Lydia, Jackson, and Allison were slower to follow. “This leads to the roof, we can go down the fire escape into the parking lot in like seconds.” He said, stopping at the door, which had a ‘roof access’ sign screwed onto the front. Natalie crossed her arms, looking down at the lock.

“And that’s a deadbolt.” Stiles remarked. He looked over his shoulder at Natalie’s gun.

“Too much noise,” She said in response to his silent question. “We wouldn’t even make it up the stairs before it found us.”

“The janitor has a key.” Scott said suddenly, and idea obviously fleshing out in his mind.

“You mean his body has it.” Stiles corrected him.

“I can get it.” Scott said, “I can find it by scent, by blood.” He leaned towards Stiles as if to make sure the other three didn’t hear.

“Well gee, that sounds like an incredibly terrible idea, what else you got?” Stiles looked thoroughly unconvinced.

“I’m getting the key.” Scott stated decisively.

Natalie rolled her eyes, “I guess I better make sure he doesn’t get himself mauled.” She muttered as Scott started towards the door and she moved to follow.

“Are you serious?” Allison said, she was looking between her cousin and Scott, her arms crossed and her expression disbelieving.

“It’s the best plan.” Scott explained, “Someone has to get the key if we wanna get out of here.” Stiles had slowly walked over and leaned with his hands on top of the nearest desk.

Natalie flipped her handgun around and held it out to Allison.

“You can’t go out there unarmed.” Allison told the two of them.

“We can’t leave _you_ unarmed.” Natalie argued, pushing the gun closer to Allison, who reluctantly took it.

Scott grabbed a pointer that was used for the blackboard in class. They all looked at him for a moment with varying degrees of doubt. “It’s better than nothing.” He defended.

“There’s gotta be something else.” Stiles said.

“There is.” Lydia breathed, bringing their gaze to her. Her eyes were locked on the chemical cabinet behind them.

“What are we gonna do, throw acid on him?” Stiles prompted.

“No, like a firebomb,” Lydia countered as if she needed to get through several solid inches of his skull to communicate her thoughts. “And there is everything there to make a self-igniting Molotov cocktail.”

“Self-igniting…” Stiles began to repeat slowly.

“Molotov cocktail.” Lydia pronounced irritably. When everyone just stared at her for a couple seconds, she tried to brush it off. “What? I read it somewhere.”

Stiles let out a deep breath. “We don’t have a key for that either.”

“Well you don’t need a gun to open it.” Natalie commented.

It seemed to almost cause Jackson physical pain to not roll his eyes as he elbowed through the glass of the chemical cabinet. They pulled bottles of long-winded acids and solutions out of the cabinet and let Lydia get to work mixing them. Once she had finished the cocktail, she stoppered it and handed it across the counter to Scott.

“No,” Allison finally said, interrupting them. “No. This is insane. You can’t do this. You cannot go out there.” She looked at Natalie, but when her cousin didn’t offer a response, she turned her eyes on Scott.

“We can’t just sit here waiting for Stiles’ dad to check his messages.” Scott argued.

“You could die.” Allison pressed. “Don’t you get that?” She leaned across the counter towards them. “He’s killed three people.”

“And we’re next.” Scott said, causing Allison to straighten up, though her mouth was pressed in a tight line. She shook her head lightly.

“Somebody has to do something.” Natalie offered, her hand brushing Scott’s shoulder as she moved past him towards the door. Scott began to follow her.

“Natalie,” Allison said in a harsh whisper. She assumed that her cousin would be screaming at them if she wasn’t afraid of being heard. “Scott, just stop.” They ground to a halt. Allison stepped up to Scott. Nat knew that she wouldn’t try appealing to her because Allison of all people knew how deep her stubborn nature went. “Do you remember- do you remember when you told me you knew whether or not I was lying, that I had a tell?” She asked. He gave a small nod. “So do you.” She sounded like her tears were getting caught in the back of her throat. “You’re a horrible liar, and you’ve been lying all night. Just… please-” Natalie had to fight the urge to comfort her cousin. The sight of Allison’s tears beginning to run down her face hurt like they were salt in the wounds of all of her own lies. “Please don’t go. Please don’t leave us.”

“Scott.” Natalie said from where she’d stopped by the door. She knew that Allison would be incensed with her, but this was for her own safety.

He started to move away. “Lock it behind me.” He said, but Allison grabbed his arm and pulled him into a kiss that he had to pry himself out of. It all seemed somewhat overdramatic to Natalie. She’d get these kids out of the school. She had to.

Natalie and Scott wandered the halls as silently as they could, Scott holding the Molotov cocktail in his hand like it was that only thing keeping him alive. Which in the end, it might be. He looked at her questioningly a couple times at first, but her confidence seemed to satisfy his want to know what she’d been keeping from him about what she was and how she knew the things she did.

Natalie followed him as he tracked the scent of the janitor’s blood into the gym, and they wove their way through the underside of the bleachers. She began to feel as though something wasn’t right as they went farther, and looking up towards Scott, she knew he felt the same, but they were too close to turn back. She had started to smell the lingering traces of blood. They were almost there.

Scott stopped and Natalie looked around them for something. Her eyes found specks on the floor, dark reflective dots that made her turn her gaze upward in horrified expectance. The body was hanging above them. Scott had looked up too, when the blood had dripped onto his cheek. Natalie steeled herself and reached up with her right arm for the janitor’s pocket, where the keys were dangling from a clip there. She came up a couple inches too short, even on her tip toes, and Scott knew better than to attempt it himself since she was basically the same height as him.

He passed her the Molotov cocktail and wedged a foot in the beams of the bleachers, climbing up high enough that his fingers brushed the keys. He shifted to try to reach farther. As he did, a screeching sound announced the retraction of the bleachers. They booth looked back at the approaching wall of metal and wood, and Natalie shifted in impatience. They couldn’t leave without those keys, but they risked being crushed if they didn’t start moving.

His hand brushed the keys enough that they fell loose from the janitor’s pocket, and he snatched them as they began to fall. He jumped down. Natalie was already weaving through the beams, careful not to trip on the bars and wheels underfoot, so Scott quickly followed her. Natalie jumped out of the way at the last minute so that Scott could dive out from behind the now-collapsed bleachers and they glanced at each other for confirmation that they had actually accomplished that.

Scott’s attention turned back out to the middle of the gym and he tensed. She followed his gaze to where the Alpha was slowly stalking towards them. Scott’s hand slowly reaching out to her, a silent request for the beaker that she was holding. She obediently handed it to him, knowing he would have a better throwing range than she had. Her heart thundered in her ears.

Her eyes flashed bright silver and she felt her skin tingle. If she needed to shift, she had to be ready. She would only have a fraction of a second if things didn’t turn out right.

The glow of her eyes seemed to set off the Alpha, and he charged at them. As soon as the beast came into tossing distance, Scott hurled the beaker at it. They waited on that breath for it to ignite upon impact, but watched in terrified dismay as it broke against the Alpha’s shoulder, shattering and spraying chemicals across the floor relatively harmlessly.

“Dammit.” Scott breathed.

“Run!” She snapped, grabbing at his arm, but the Alpha advanced on them too quickly, snatching his ankle and tossing him across the gym.

As Scott had been knocked to the ground, he’d fallen on her legs, sending her face-first into the polished wood of the floor. She scrambled back up as quickly as she could, ready to shift, but as she got back to her feet the Alpha’s roar knocked her back to her knees, cupping her hands over her ears. The volume and the reverberations of the metal, wood, and plaster in the gym made her eardrums scream in protest. She forced her eyes to open enough that she could see the Alpha crouched over Scott. Her eyes slipped closed for a second, and when she reopened them, the Alpha was gone and her ears were ringing. She could see Scott still out in the middle of the gym, writhing in what appeared to be pain.

She tried to push herself to an upright position, but she was disoriented from the pain in her ears, and it slowed her movements. Her feet carried her out to where Scott was laying, as quickly as she could manage, and knelt next to him, trying to grab his arm to comfort him. He was twisting around like someone had shoved a searing hot iron into his back. She finally seized his arm tight enough that he stopped moving so much, but when he turned to look at her, she could see that she’d made a terrible mistake.

His eyes were glowing yellow. He was fully transformed, and she’d lost sight of his mental consciousness. In the amount of time it took her to process her surprise and realize that she should shift, he’d gotten to his feet and tossed her against the bleachers hard enough to slam her head into them and knock her unconscious.

When she came to, she wasn’t sure if she was out for minutes or for hours, but she tried to stand and fell over again on her first try. Her second attempt was more successful, and ignoring the nausea, vertigo, and pounding in her head, she began to trace her way back up to the classroom where they’d left Allison. She needed to find her cousin. Especially if Scott had transformed and gone after her. She recovered from her dizziness with relative speed and by the time she reached the second floor she was sprinting. She could hear sirens outside now, and felt some relief, though it would be short-lived if she didn’t find Allison in the same state she’d left her.

As she turned the last corner to the hallway that the classroom was in, she saw Scott on the floor in front of the door, doubled over on his hands and knees. A glance at the knob told her that the key had been busted off in the lock, effectively jamming the door shut. Her eyes trailed down to Scott, who looked up at her approach, his face covered in cold sweat.

She stared at him in an implied question.

“Fine.” He answered. _They were fine_.

“Thank God.” She breathed and crouched to help him back to his feet. “I have to say I’m impressed, McCall.” She told him.

“Does that mean you’ll tell me what the hell you are?” He prompted.

“Maybe.” She replied, stepping back when it was clear that he could stand on his own.

“Sorry for knocking you out.” He said, rubbing the edge of his sleeve on his face to get off the sweat.

“I’m just glad you didn’t decide to gut me for extra measure.” She said, sliding her hands into her back pockets. “That would have taken a lot longer to heal.” She offered up a small smile. “I’ll talk to you about it after practice tomorrow.”

Between the two of them, they managed to pry the key out and open the classroom door. They were ushered out of the school by the police as they arrived. Natalie kept the knowledge of her concussion to herself and was grateful that Scott didn’t say anything either.

Natalie was not looking forward to explaining this to Chris. She had to somehow justify why she’d gone to the school without telling him, how she’d left Allison with nothing but three defenseless teens and a gun and tried to take on the Alpha when she should have called him right away.

She picked at one of her nails as she leaned against her car and waited for the EMTs to finish checking over Allison. The throbbing at the back of her head was now a dull ache, like a week-old bruise that refused to fade. Scott had told her to let the EMTs look at it, but she couldn’t be diagnosed with a concussion. Not when it would be good as new in less than a week, and it would bench her in lacrosse.

She looked up as Allison started walking over, but Natalie turned away again as Scott caught up with her.

Allison’s anger was a terrifying thing to behold. Another Argent trait that she’d been graced with. Natalie knew that it would soon be her turn to bear that indignant betrayal, but she had the security of Allison’s blood in her veins to protect her from the worst of it. She just hoped that half-truths and assertions of care over Allison’s well-being would be enough to sate her cousin.

Nat looked up again as Allison approached. The brunette looked like she was struggling to keep back tears, but kept a calm face as she stepped around her cousin’s car. “I’m here for you.” Natalie said quietly, reminding her that she had someone to lean on. The brunette gave a small nod and pulled open the car door and dropped into the passenger seat.

Natalie looked over her shoulder to where Scott was still standing, staring after Allison. She yanked open her door and slid in, jamming down the brake and clutch as she started the engine.

When they got home, Natalie let Allison recount the night’s events, only adding in minor details when prompted to. Then Chris and Victoria had sent them to get ready to sleep. After Allison had gone to bed, however, Nat went back downstairs to find Chris still in the kitchen, sitting at the counter with a newspaper and looking like he’d been waiting for her. She was sure he had.

“So what really happened?” He asked.

“I want to preface this with: I was totally in control of the situation the entire time.” She said as she sat down at the counter.

“How about we start with why you were there in the first place.” Chris offered, false patience in his tone. He was livid that Natalie had let Allison get into danger and hadn’t called for backup, Nat knew that he was holding it back because he’d been afraid for her, too. “And why you didn’t call me or Vic.”

Natalie chewed on her lip as she recalled what she’d decided she was going to tell him. “I knew it wasn’t the Alpha when I heard the noise from the school.” She began. “So I thought I would go, just to investigate. I’ve been able to do _that_ alone in the past, so I didn’t call. I didn’t find anything right away, but when I was going to leave, I ran into Allison. I tried to convince her to go with me, but she was determined to find Scott, who had told her he was at the school. So I stayed with her.” She leaned forward against the counter. She knew it sounded too rehearsed, but she was already this far in… “We ran into Scott and Stiles, and Lydia and Jackson, got chased around the school by the Alpha. We ended up in a chemistry lab with a locked door to the roof. Scott said he was going to get the keys off the dead janitor’s body, so I went with him in case something happened. We made it to the gym, where the body was, got the keys, went back up, and by the time we got back the police were there.”

“You left Allison with three untrained and defenseless teenagers.” Chris prompted her.

“I gave her my gun.” Natalie defended.

Chris leaned forward slowly and rested his face in his hands, his elbows propped on the counter. She waited patiently for him to look back up at her. “And you- _You_ decided it was a good idea for you and Scott to risk facing the Alpha _alone_?” He sounded equal parts indignant and incredulous as he looked back up at her.

She opened her mouth to speak, wanting to shrink back against the counter.

“What if something happened to you?” He said, “What if the police didn’t show up?”

“I just want to remind you that _none_ of us got hurt-” She tried to object.

“Out of sheer dumb luck.” He countered, “Natalie Ann, you need to _promise_ me that you’ll _call_ either me or your aunt when _anything_ strange happens.”

She exhaled, looking at the floor. He was silent as he waited. “I know.” She said finally, “I’m sorry.”

He sighed, rubbing his forehead, “Go get some sleep, you’ve had a rough night.”


	9. Chapter 9

Neither Allison nor Natalie made any attempt at conversation as Kate and Chris drove them to school the following Monday. Allison was fuming over his over-protectiveness, but Natalie was merely trying not to poke the bear.

As they pulled up to the front of the towering brick building behind their police escort, Allison pulled on the door handle a couple times with no effect. She exhaled loudly in irritation.

“Dad,” She began, a look of false patience on her face. At least after Nat’s talking to a few nights prior she knew where her cousin got it from. “If you’re going to insist on driving me to school, you at least have to let me out of the car.”

Chris looked unperturbed. Kate looked somewhat smug. Natalie watched silently as her uncle’s eyes took in the police officer standing on the sidewalk beside their car, and the caution tape bordering some of the windows of the building.

“Kate, what’s your opinion on homeschooling?” Allison stared at her dad in disbelief.

“Hmmm,” Kate hummed theatrically. “You know I’m more of a learning by doing kind of girl.”

Allison was now leaning forward in the back seat to place herself between Chris and Kate. “What’s your opinion on overprotective dads who keep ruining their daughter’s lives?” The two Argent girls looked at each other for a moment before Kate leaned over and hit the unlock button. Chris stared at his sister as if she’d deeply betrayed him. Kate just grinned in satisfaction. “Thank you.” Allison whispered.

“You’re welcome.” Kate whispered back, then winked at Natalie.

The two girls in the backseat popped open their doors and slipped out onto the blacktop. Allison waited for Nat to circle the Tahoe so they could walk up the stairs together.

“My dad,” Allison commented, but didn’t say anything more, instead giving a frustrated huff.

“He’s worried about you-” Nat began to defend her uncle’s mostly reasonable reaction, considering that it was not just a murderer, but a werewolf that they were dealing with.

“He can’t keep me from going to school because of it.” Allison argued as they stepped through the doors. “I hope he wasn’t hard on you. I heard you go down to the kitchen last night.”

Natalie shrugged. “I got a glass of water. He just asked if I remembered anything you didn’t, but I think you covered the bases pretty well.”

“You never told me why you were here.” Allison pointed out, shooting her cousin a sidelong glance.

“I ah-” She began uncertainly, but was spared from answering when Lydia appeared, questioning them about going shopping after school. They made it to their first class without Allison bringing it up again.

As they left the communication classroom when the bell rang, Allison looked uneasy. “It’s just weird, everybody’s talking about what happened the other night and nobody knows it was us.”

Lydia produced a pleased look. “Thank you for the protection of minors.” She said, smiling at the ceiling theatrically. Allison didn’t look convinced.

“Do you think I made the wrong decision?” Allison asked anxiously.

“About that jacket with that dress?” Lydia inquired, “Absolutely.”

Allison obviously tried not to smile. Natalie could already tell what her cousin was about to ask. Her intuition came from years of living with Allison, and the fact that she _really_ didn’t want to talk about McCall, so _of course_ Allison would bring it up.

“You know what I mean.” Allison countered.

Lydia made a derisive _tsh_ noise. “Helloo?” She said, dramatically, as all things she said, but she looked at the girl between her and Natalie in all seriousness. “Scott locked us in a classroom and left us for dead.”

“I’d like to point out that I-” Nat began to argue.

“I’m still mad at you, too, for the record.” Lydia cut her off, “But I like you more.” She amended before continuing, “He’s lucky we’re not pressing charges, or making him pay our therapy bills.”

That seemed to satisfy Allison. “I mean, at least you left us a gun, right?” Allison looked at her cousin.

But when they were sitting in their economics class, sitting down to take a test, she could sense her cousin tense up as McCall walked into the room. Natalie met his eye as he started towards their side of the room and she gave a minute shake of her head, trying to tell him not to talk to the girl sitting in front of her, but nevertheless, he approached Allison’s desk.

“Allison-” He began, but Professor Harris intercepted him and told him to sit down.

Nat knew better than to expect that to be the end of it, so she was unsurprised when she could hear his breathing pick up from a row over. She reached for the gentle thump of his heart, to find it racing. But not the angry rush of a werewolf about to change, more like the feverish cartwheel of a panicking human. He suddenly pushed out of his seat and ran out of the room, heedless of Professor Harris’s call, and was quickly followed by Stiles.

Nat could feel the apprehension drifting from Allison. “He’s fine.” She whispered, just so her cousin would hear. Her brunette curls bounced as she gave a slight nod.

* * *

In after school practice, Coach Finstock called the team into the boys’ locker room to announce the probationary promotion of three players to first line. This trio included Stiles, who was elated to the point of several cries of happiness and a victory dance. Then, Coach proclaimed that McCall was now co-captain with Jackson. The rounded edge of Natalie’s lacrosse stick was hard against the stranglehold she had on it. She could see this practice going very badly, from the sound of several upset murmurs.

And it was the full moon.

Chris, Aunt Vic, and Kate would be discussing strategies, loading guns and checking ammo for the night’s hunt. She had to try to keep McCall from making an ass of himself on the field and possibly maiming someone. If she let him hurt anyone… it was a sure way to guarantee he’d be dead before morning.

When they made it out to the field, she didn’t see McCall at all. She dropped onto the bench beside Stiles.

“Where did Thing One go?” She asked quietly.

“Are you implying I’m Thing Two?” He answered.

“Stiles.”

“He’s talking to someone.”

“Stiles.”

“Lydia. He’s talking to Lydia.” Stiles responded.

She gritted her teeth for a second before speaking. “About?”

“Nothing.”

“ _Stiles_.” She pressed again. “It’s the freaking full moon.” She hissed under her breath. “You think it’s a good idea to let him go off and talk to someone like Lydia on his own?”

“What do you mean _someone li-_ ” He began.

“Someone conniving and vicious and attractive _like Lydia_ -” Natalie had no problems with Lydia. The girl was smart as hell. She knew it from having advanced mathematics with her, and from the way she just so happened to know how to create a Molotov cocktail. She also knew how to manipulate people, which was both a good and bad thing.

At that moment she saw Scott walking down the bench and shut her mouth. He didn’t appear suspicious, so she let it rest.

As soon as warm-ups were done and the real practice began, however, she could see the nature of the full moon creeping into his play. He was being unnecessarily aggressive. Overly competitive. Violent. Her hands itched. She wanted to chide him but also knew better than to accidentally provoke him. So she kept her mouth shut and minded her own business. Or, at least, she tried to.

Keeping to herself was a lot more difficult when someone was determined to make that impossible. She had gone to the water cooler during one of the few minutes of respite Coach Finstock was kind enough to grant them, and found that she wasn’t the only one who wanted to fill up her water bottle.

“Lahey.” She greeted as she stepped back, lifting her now blessedly full water bottle to her mouth.

“Isserman.” He returned, thumb pressing in the button to fill up his own water bottle.

Something dawned on her that she realized ashamedly she should have thought about a lot sooner, if it weren’t for… the Alpha werewolf on a killing spree. “I’m sorry about chemistry.” She said, lowering her bottle and snapping the spout shut on it.

He shrugged, but didn’t look back at her. “They cancelled school. Not your fault.” He remarked.

_Oh, but what he didn’t know_ … She shifted her feet. “The next assignment, then?” She prompted.

He nodded without looking up, twisting the cap back onto his water bottle. She watched as his eyes flicked to meet hers, as if he’d half-expected her to blow it off. “Yeah, sounds good.”

She got through practice without tackling Scott to the ground, no matter how much of an ass he made of himself, and got home to find Kate and Allison apparently playing Taser target practice on Allison’s Mister Bear.

Before the hunters left for the night, Chris had cornered Natalie and questioned her about if she’d noticed anything strange about Stiles. To her dismay, she knew this meant they suspected _Stiles_ to be the new werewolf beta. They was unnervingly too close to the _real_ beta for her likes, and she told Chris she hadn’t noticed anything at all. Finally, he let it drop and told her to keep an eye on Allison, but the Allison had said she was going to be working on the English paper they had due the following week. And so, Natalie had decided that the most pressing issue she had to deal with was protecting Scott McCall from himself.

And that is how she ended up sitting on the roof above his bedroom window.

From the open window she could hear McCall alternating between shouting at Stiles, and pleading with him. She assumed Stiles had probably tied him up to something. After the moon had reached its arc in the sky, she could hear the change overtaking his humanity.

They’d kill him.

A part of her had the instinct. Pull out the gun she had strapped to the back of her waist. Prepare for a fight. Protect the innocent lives of those he might attack.

She didn’t have the heart. Even if he were trying to dig his claws into her neck, she wasn’t sure if she would have the spine to kill him. She was a sorry excuse for a hunter.

She was unprepared when he sprang from the window.

Natalie swore under her breath and launched herself off the roof.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to DesertLily, akatsukiwolfrider, JpLimeGreen, and guests who left kudos & bookmarked! Hope you enjoy the new chapter. (:


	10. Chapter 10

Natalie dropped into the seat across from Scott and Stiles at lunch. They were talking about something heatedly, as Stiles simultaneously shoved chicken strips into his mouth, almost whole.

She didn’t want to be anywhere near these two buffoons to begin with, but what kind of cousin would she be if Scott had made Allison cry, and Natalie did _nothing_ about it? She’d been slightly pissed at first when she found out that Scott had been sending Allison pictures of them together, but had recanted her anger when she considered the type of person Scott was. He obviously wasn’t _trying_ to make Allison cry.

“I don’t want her to know I’m talking to you,” She said under her breath, venomous, glaring at McCall, “So I’m going to make this quick. Stop hurting my cousin. Leave her alone. If you need something, talk to me.” She went to stand up.

“Wait-” Scott said. She settled reluctantly back into the seat, watching him expectantly. Stiles was staring at her with a bit of chicken hanging out of his mouth. He began to chew it viciously, his cheeks bulging. “Allison’s necklace-”

“ _What_?” Nat demanded.

“We need it.” Scott continued.

“Again,” She snapped, “ _What_?”

“ _We need it_.” Scott repeated.

“I heard you the first time.” She said irritably, “But _why_?”

“For important things.” Stiles input, mouth _slightly_ less full of chicken.

“Not convincing.” She went to stand up again.

Scott grabbed the sleeve of her jacket and she sat down once more, her eyebrows arched menacingly. “Like getting rid of the Alpha.” He said under his breath.

Natalie took in a deep breath. “They’re swimming for gym today. Sixth period. Blue and brown bag.” She got up this time, but leaned down to snap, “And don’t _text her anymore_!” She said before crossing the lunchroom to sit beside her cousin and Lydia.

* * *

“Scott McCall.” She hissed as she pushed through the door to Allison’s room, shutting it softly behind herself. “I thought I smelt a wolf.” She snapped, “What are you-”

He was standing at Allison’s desk, the girl’s necklace in hand. “It wasn’t in her bag.”

She exhaled heavily and leaned against the wall by the door. “ _Jesus_ , McCall-”

“I’ve got it now, I’m leaving-” He started backing towards the window placatingly. “Please don’t-”

“I never saw you, and if you don’t get it back before she notices it’s gone, I will break your kneecaps.” Natalie told him sharply.

He gave her an apologetic and grateful smile before slipping out the window.

What was she doing?

A few seconds later, she heard the front door open. Chris was home. She slipped out the bedroom door silently and hurried down the hall to her own room. She pressed her ear against the door once it was shut, and sure enough, she could hear Chris and Scott talking. She pulled open the door slightly to hear them. Chris was questioning him on how he knew Derek Hale, and talking about Allison’s safety. This was followed by Scott’s affirmation that he was _also_ concerned about Allison’s safety. Then Chris told him to go.

Natalie could hear someone coming up the stairs. She moved over to her desk, flipping open her calculus book and scribbling down an equation.

Allison pushed the door open far enough to stick her head in. “Did you hear that?” She asked quietly, her eyes looking wet.

Nat looked at her cousin and nodded. Allison pressed her lips together. “Want to talk?” She inquired.

Now Allison nodded, stepping into the room and shutting the door before walking over and flopping onto the bed, wrapping her arms around one of Nat’s pillows. “Do _you_ think I made a mistake, Nat?” She mumbled into the pillowcase.

The girl spun the desk chair around and considered her response for a second. “I think he really, truly cares about you.” She said. Her cousin’s face disappeared into the pillow. Natalie got up and moved to sit next to her on the bed. “I don’t necessarily think it’s a mistake. I think it was important to have some time apart, but maybe you two need to talk about it before you decide.” She explained. Allison nodded without looking up. “He’s an idiot. You have to be patient with those.”

Allison gave a small little laugh.


	11. Chapter 11

Nat claimed the spot on the bench beside Scott. He looked more tense than usual, which was saying something since he was seemingly constantly in a state of nervous breakdown as of late. “So, where’s Stiles?” She asked under her breath.

He tossed his hands up from where they hung between his knees, his elbows rested dejectedly on his thighs. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“I thought you two were joined at the hip.” She remarked.

“Yeah, well,” He said, annoyance in his tone. “Apparently not.”

“You know it’s important.” She told him. “If he’s missing out on first line, it’s got to be something important.”

“I know,” He said, “And that makes me feel like I should be helping him with whatever it is.”

“Despite _everything_ ,” She said, “He’s smart. He’ll be fine.”

Scott exhaled deeply, then nodded a couple times. Her eyes flicked up, catching movement coming towards them. Jackson. She did not want to be involved in their macho dispute. Instead, she stood up and headed down the benches to fill up her water bottle.

Allison looked down and saw her just as she screwed the top back onto the bottle. She grinned and waved at her cousin. Natalie grinned and waved back, eliciting smiles from both Chris and Kate as well.

Coach Finstock called the team down to the field for a pregame huddle, and soon the game was in full swing. They lead the game the entire night, only giving away a fraction of the points that they ended up with. Natalie even scored a goal, and made two assists.

After the final tone went off, announcing the end of the game, the team huddled together in a victory pile before lining up to slap hands with the opposition. She was elated. That was her best performance on the field yet, and she certainly felt now that she’d earned her keep on first line. Her fingers tingled as they met hand after glove after hand until she’d said ‘good game’ to every player she’d beat.

Allison tackled her with a hug once Coach dismissed them to the locker rooms. “That was _awesome_ , Nat!” She said, giddy as she released her cousin. “That goal you made from midfield?!”

“We don’t raise losers in the Argent family.” Kate interjected, leaning an elbow on Allison’s shoulder and winking at Natalie. “Or half-assers.”

“Kate-” Chris began to protest her language, but Natalie and Allison already had laughed.

“She’s right, though, Uncle Chris.” Nat argued, “I worked my butt off for this.”

“And I worked my butt off cheering you on in the stand.” Allison added.

Nat grinned at her. She was pleasantly embarrassed at the sign Allison had made. A simple ‘Go, #19!’ “Yeah, Alli,” Nat teased, “I don’t even need Chris to cover the embarrassing dad bases, you’ve got it taken care of.”

“ _Stop_ ,” Allison laughed, shoving her heavily-padded shoulder.

“We’ll see you back at the house, Natalie,” Chris said, “Drive safe.”

The three of them followed the crowd back out to the parking lot and Nat headed into the locker room, Becca was already leaving as she walked in.

“Great job, Nat.” She called as they brushed past each other at the doors.

“You too, Becca.” She said, “You had some pretty epic saves.”

“Thanks!” She said over her shoulder with a grin, “See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” Nat pushed through the door and immediately began to strip, peeling off the sweaty layers of gear and jersey. Once she’d rinsed the dirt and grime from herself, she pulled on some sweats and a tee, pulling her bag full of gross equipment over her shoulder.

As she walked down the hall towards the front of the school, it was mostly quiet. Only the sound of the showers running in the boy’s locker room, and a couple murmured voices from somewhere else broke the silence of the old brick building. It made her hair stand up on her arms. Being alone in the school was a million times creepier following the Alpha attack, despite the fact that she knew she was probably safer there now because of it. What were the chances of lightning striking the same place twice, right?

She hopped down the stairs out of the building and started towards her car, fishing her keys from the pocket of her duffel bag. A jingling sound drew her attention over to the bike racks just a few feet from the bottom of the stairs.

Isaac Lahey pulled the lock chain from the rack, wrapping it around the beam that ran between the handlebars and seat of his bike before fiddling with the lock to hook it there.

Natalie halted. She should just let him bike home by himself, at nearly eleven at night. She had no business interfering. He shifted on his feet, favoring his left leg. He’d been plowed to the ground by a particularly hefty defenseman towards the end of the game, his hip had hit first, and she knew it was probably getting stiff now, despite the fact that he’d kept playing as if nothing was wrong.

He seemed to realize he was being watched and started to look up just as she spoke up. “Do you want a ride?”

“A-” He started to repeat. “No, I’m fine.” He answered quickly.

She arched her brows and stared at him for a moment until he looked away, pressing his lips together. “Come on.” She said, gesturing for him to follow.

“My bike-” He began to argue.

“I’ll give you a ride to school in the morning.” She said over her shoulder, “But it’s late, I’ll drive you.”

“Isserman, really-” He insisted to her back.

“Lahey. Really.” She called back to him in return, clicking the unlock button on her fob. The car’s lights flashed and she popped open the back door to toss in her duffel bag before dropping into the driver’s seat. She started up the car with a simultaneous press of her foot and her finger and played with the stereo idly as she waited the couple minutes it look Lahey to lock his bike back up and slide into the passenger seat.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He said as he closed the door, looking across the dash at her gauges.

“Don’t let the car fool you,” She said, resting her hand on the shifter. “I’m just _really_ irresponsible. Now, where are we going?”

“Take a right out of the parking lot.” He told her.

She obliged, quiet music leaking from the speakers as they pulled onto the road. Part of her wanted to blast something loud, fast, and inappropriate to jam out to in celebration of the win, but decided that was something best reserved for when she was alone.

“Left on Main.” He added.

“How’s your hip?” She prompted, thinking about how the same guy that had hit Isaac had also checked Taylor hard enough to send him flying back four or five feet, and had rammed into Brown twice in less than ten minutes, leaving him with bloody elbows and knees..

“Sore as hell.” He answered candidly. “I’m just glad it's a short practice tomorrow.” She could feel him glance at her. “How’s your shoulder?”

It had been more than a couple weeks now since the dislocated shoulder incident, and Natalie had nearly forgotten about it. It had fully healed only two or three days later, so it hadn’t even crossed her mind.

“Fine.” She answered as she took a left onto the major road that ran through town.

“Right on Second,” He said, “It’s a ways down.”

“You bike to school _every day_?” She inquired in minor disbelief. It had to be at least a twenty minute ride.

“Well I don’t have a car, so-” He started.

“Well I-”

“Don’t, Isserman.” He said, “I could ride the bus if I really didn’t want to bike.”

“That’s not the same.” She disagreed. “I literally live on Glen Drive.” She said, “You can’t be that far out of my way.”

“I live on Hickory.” He offered.

“Do you live by Jackson?” She asked. She knew he lived on Hickory, the north end of it, anyway.

“He lives across the street.” Isaac replied.

She raised a hand as if to say _See?_ The reality was that his house was two, maybe three blocks off her beaten path to school. Technically, they were in the same neighborhood.

“I’m not going to ask you to drive me to school.” He said definitively.

She shrugged, making the right onto Second Avenue. “It’s nice to have options.” She offered. “If you’re running late or something. Get pummeled in lacrosse by an oversized man-child and can’t walk.”

“Hilarious.” He shot at her, flicking a half-hearted glare in her direction.

“Just saying.” She returned, turning now onto Hickory.

“It’s the brick one-” He said, pointing, “Right there.”

She pulled into the driveway of the cozy, cottage-style home and shifted into park.

Isaac shifted to push open the door.

“Can I see your phone?” Natalie asked, looking at him.

He looked back at her for a moment.

“You do have a phone, right?” She prompted.

He cleared his throat quietly, “Yeah, I-” He said, fishing through the pockets of his sweatshirt and pulling out a flip phone. “Here.” He handed it to her.

She took it and flipped it open, careful not to appear at all surprised by the fact that he was a few years behind the curve in phone technology. In all honesty, she really wasn’t surprised anyway. After she put in her number, she handed it back.

“I told you,” She said as he looked down at the screen to see what she’d done. “Options. Also, I usually get to the school early, so just let me know when you’re ready tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” He swung open the car door. “Thanks for the ride, Isserman.” He said, stepping out.

“Your hip will thank me.” She leaned forward slightly to call out the door as he pushed it closed and opened the backseat to grab out his backpack.

“See you later,” He tacked on, she returned an affirmative as he closed that door as well and headed up the sidewalk to the front door.

She shifted into reverse and slowly backed out of the driveway, forgetting that she’d wanted to listen to something a little less tame on the few blocks back to her own house.

She’d never given her number out before. Lydia of course, didn’t count, or any of Allison’s other friends that she’d befriended due to affiliation. Isaac Lahey was probably the closest she’d gotten to _her own_ friend. And it scared her shitless.


	12. Chapter 12

The car hummed as she shifted into park in the Laheys’ driveway. The clock on her dash told her it was six-forty in the morning, and that she was right on time, but she knew she had it set a couple minutes early so that she wouldn’t be late to anything. Not that it was a foolproof system.

She slipped her phone out of her jacket pocket and started pulling up her texts so that she could let Isaac know she was there, but that was precisely when she heard a door slam and saw him walking down the sidewalk towards her car. She pushed her phone back into her pocket and turned down the volume dial on the stereo.

“Good morning,” She offered as he opened the door and dropped into the seat next to hers. He mumbled back something that sounded like a greeting and she shifted into reverse, her tires rolling them down the drive and onto the street. “Ready for practice?” She asked.

“Are you a morning person or something?” He asked.

“I am literally Lilith, the mother of all demons, before I have my coffee.” She told him. “You should try it.”

“Coffee does nothing except taste like rotten water and make me pee.” He argued.

“Okay, Negative Nancy.” She returned.

They were quiet for a couple moments, until she turned onto Main Street. “Sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night.” He apologized.

“I can hit you in the face with lacrosse balls before practice to wake you up.” She offered.

“As tempting as that is, I think I'll pass.”

She shrugged, “Well, if you change your mind-”

He cast her an unconvinced look and she averted her eyes back to the street before them, flicking on her blinker as they approached the drive into the school. Her stomach felt twisted in a distinctly uncomfortable way, and as much as she knew she should have a good excuse at the ready if Allison found out that she was picking Lahey up before school – at least something better than ‘it seemed like a nice thing to do’, because she knew that wouldn’t be convincing enough – she really didn’t want to think about it, either.

Her mind felt preoccupied all through morning practice, and she couldn’t shake the feelings of both relief and apprehension when she found Allison and Lydia waiting outside the girls’ locker room so they could drag her along on their adventure for the day.

They strode through the fallen leaves at the preserve, Allison in her leather jacket and boots, Lydia in a tiny pea coat and heels, and Natalie in her sweats. Allison was hauling her longbow, and Nat had her hands shoved in the pockets of her hooded zip-up. She had a bad feeling.

Allison commented that Jackson had asked her to the winter formal, as friends. Nat could feel irritation rolling off Lydia, despite the fact that she looked very nearly _serene_. Allison said something suggesting that she knew Lydia had made out with Scott in Coach Finstock’s office during lacrosse practice, and Lydia spilt all, apologizing.

Natalie felt indignation bubble up in her chest. _That’s_ what it was on the full moon. When Scott was supposedly talking to Lydia for Stiles. That little _asshole_ -

She kept her mouth shut.

The air was left stagnant for not even a full minute before Lydia opted to change the subject, and asked Natalie who she was taking to the formal. She gave a nonchalant shrug.

“You can’t go with us if you don’t have a date.” Lydia tacked on matter-of-factly.

“What?” Natalie inquired in surprise, “You aren’t serious.”

“Deadly.” Lydia said, her eyes flicking at her for a short moment as she tipped her head to the side.

“Who am I supposed to ask?” Nat demanded.

Lydia seemed to only consider this for a second. “The one with the curls?” She offered. When Natalie just looked at her, waiting for a more specific description as they trudged through the trees, she continued. “On the lacrosse team? He’s really tall.”

“ _Lahey_?” Nat prompted in disbelief.

Lydia shrugged. “I don’t know his name. Jackson said you two snuck into the girls locker room during practice.”

“Seriously?” Allison asked enthusiastically, her dimples popping out in her cheeks as Natalie muttered under her breath, “Jesus-”

“He’s kind of cute.” She continued, ignoring the look on her face. “You should ask him.”

“Or I can’t go to the winter formal with you and Allison?” Nat asked annoyedly.

“Mhmm.” She responded cheerily.

“Allison, are you really going to let her bully me into this?” She looked at her cousin, who gave a half-lift of one of her shoulders and looked back ahead. “Really?” But she knew it had much less to do with Allison not being willing to defend her, and more to do with Allison wanting to see her ask someone out. She had never had a date for anything before, much less a school dance.

Suddenly, Allison stopped and knelt down, pulling her bow and arrows from her bag and fishing something small and metal from her pocket. Natalie felt her stomach drop when she realized what it was.

“What does that do?” Lydia asked as Allison began to screw it to the end of the arrow.

Allison smiled, “We’re about to find out.” She set her jaw and stood up, nocking the arrow and raising the bow. She pulled back, aimed at a tree a little way off, and let it fly. The arrowhead popped on impact, igniting sparks with a sharp flash of white-hot light. Fire danced out from the hole the arrow left in the tree.

“What the hell was that?” Lydia asked, staring at the impact spot in a reined sort of fearful surprise.

“I don’t know.” Allison replied, her eyes flicking over the shrapnel of the arrowhead that had fallen to the ground.

“An incendiary.” Natalie remarked. “Like a flash bomb.”

Lydia looked at her, convinced, though Allison turned and eyed her over her shoulder, less than so.

“Well,” Lydia said, clapping her hands together. “That was _fun_. Any more lethal weapons you want to try out?”

Something snapped behind them. Lydia looked over her shoulder. Natalie felt her muscles tense. She couldn’t smell anything unusual, at least not from wherever the source of the noise was, but she could hear something moving.

“Hold this,” Allison handed her bow to Lydia.

“What, why?” Lydia asked. Nat could hear her pulse jump.

“Because I thought I heard something.” Allison whispered.

“So, what if you heard something?” Lydia prompted.

“ _So_ , I want to find out what that something is. Don’t worry, it’s probably nothing.” Allison shed her archery glove and dropped it onto her bag.

“What if that nothing is something, and that something is dangerous?” Lydia prompted, her voice quick with unease.

“Shoot it.” Allison instructed pointedly.

Natalie moved to follow her cousin, but then paused. The wind had shifted slightly, causing a light breeze to rustle past them.

Scott McCall.

Nat wanted to roll her eyes so hard she’d probably pull a muscle if she did.

Lydia looked at her, her eyes wide and her lipsticked-lips parted.

Natalie shook her head. “Fifty bucks says it’s McCall.”

Lydia made a disdainful noise and crossed her arms.

It seemed so trivial. So _insignificant_ to be worried about Scott McCall in the face of the Alpha that was terrorizing Beacon Hills. Boy drama was something that Natalie had no patience for. It didn’t seem to make sense. She had started to become complacent in that she thought this might be the biggest issue that she needed to handle with Allison.

Little did Natalie know that later that night Allison would be positively irate with her, for reasons she wasn’t yet aware of. Nor would she be aware of them anytime soon, unless Allison stopped giving her the silent treatment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! I hope as the year starts to wind down things are going well for you guys! I want to thank everyone who's left kudos, comments and bookmarks, particularly multiplefandommess, BlackCat_1601, GreyGrey, LilyaGarzon, Annett, and Ran ahzu. 
> 
> Thanks for stopping in, and have a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it with the US)!


	13. Chapter 13

“McCall, you fucking loser.” Natalie leaned out her bedroom window to see him tangled in the bushes below the eaves. He just looked up at her for a minute. “Get out of the shrubs and come back up here so I can properly chew you out.” He started clambering away from the branches as she turned around and pulled a throw off the back of her desk chair, wrapping it around her shoulders.

He appeared at her window a couple moments later and she walked over to lean against the frame. “We talked about you being weird.”

“I’m keeping her safe.” He argued.

“From what?” She demanded.

He exhaled loudly. She was glad that Chris and Aunt Vic’s window was on the other side of the house. “Derek is missing.” He said, “And the Alpha thinks that the Argents have him. So, he’s threatening to hurt Allison to get him back.”

Nat nodded slowly. “You say it like you know who the Alpha is.” She prompted.

“I’ll tell you if you tell me what you are.” He offered.

“Capable,” She said, her eyes melted into liquid silver for a fleeting moment, then drifted back to hazel. “That’s what I am.”

“You said you’d tell me.” He pressed.

“I said _maybe_ I’d tell you.” She amended.

“Then _maybe_ I won’t tell you who the Alpha is.” He returned

She set her jaw. “My father was a shapeshifter, a therianthrope.” She said, “So I got a little of it.” He looked at her for a moment without saying anything. “I’m a better hunter, though.”

His eyes narrowed slightly, “What does that even mean?”

“It means that no one ever taught me _how_ to be a therian,” She said, annoyedly, “But I’ve spent my entire life training to be a hunter.” Her gaze settled on him expectantly, “Your turn.”

He looked reluctant, but answered nonetheless. “The Alpha is Peter Hale.”

Her chin tipped up, “That makes a lot of sense.”

“He’s actually crazy,” Scott continued, “Like full-on homicidal maniac-”

“That’s the vibe I’ve been getting so far.” She reasoned. She sighed and slouched more heavily against the window frame. Scott turned to press his back against the other side. “We can handle it. The Argents have dealt with worse-”

“They’re going to end up killing Derek and me, too.” He objected.

“I won’t let them kill you.” She said. He looked at her. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“What about Derek?” He inquired.

“I don’t think anyone can protect Derek. And I doubt he’d let them.” Scott shrugged at that and they were both quiet.

“So I heard you left Allison sitting in your house by herself for like, four hours.” Nat remarked.

She was honestly surprised that Allison had even passive-aggressively made a comment about it earlier, considering the fact that she had seemed to want nothing to do with Natalie when she had come back home that night. Nat was still confused about what was going on, but was trying to give her cousin some space. In the meantime, she could at least make Scott feel uncomfortable for being a dumbass.

Scott had the decency to look both ashamed and pained. “I was trying to keep Peter from hurting my mom, and Derek-” She eyed him. “Derek got attacked at the Hale house.”

“She wants to trust you, Scott, but you’re making yourself really hard to have faith in.”

“I know.” He said in frustration. “But what am I supposed to tell her?”

“At least tell her that you have a lot going on in your life right now, and that your flakiness is not her fault.” She said. “But don’t tell her the truth.”

He looked at her for a moment while she picked at the hem of her tee shirt, her own eyes down. “Why do you know, but she doesn’t?”

“Because her parents are trying to protect her from this.” She said, scratching her thumbnail against the seam of the shirt. “But I lived with our grandma for my formative years. And she had a very traditional way of raising hunter children.”

He didn’t say anything right away. “How’d you end up with the Argents?”

“My grandmother died of lymphoma when I was twelve.” She said, “Aunt Vic was my next of kin, and Chris agreed to adopt me, so I moved in with them right after I started middle school.” She explained.

Scott looked slightly uncomfortable, like he was trying to hide it. “I’m sorry-”

“It’s fine.” Natalie interjected, “She taught me a lot, but… she wasn’t a nice lady.”

They were both awkwardly silent for a few moments.

“So where do you ‘spose Derek is, anyway?” She finally asked.

“Great question.” He muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So many thanks to awhisperofsilk and CarryOn1033 for the kudos & comments! And of course, just as much appreciation to the guests that left kudos as well. You guys are the best. <3


	14. Chapter 14

She looked at the clock on the dash, then back at the windows of the Lahey home. He was a few minutes behind, and she’d already texted him. She decided to take a couple minutes more to wait, then she’d go up and knock on the door. Those minutes ticked by, without a text from Isaac, nor any sign of life from the house.

She pushed open the door, leaving the car running and shoved her hands into her pockets as she walked up the sidewalk to the front door, taking the couple steps up to the slightly recessed entry and pressing her finger into the doorbell. If he had slept through his alarm, hopefully he’d at least hear that.

She waited for a moment, two… three… And the door opened. An older middle-aged man in glasses opened the door and looked at her for a second.

“Hi,” She said, the greeting feeling feeble on her lips. “I’m Natalie, I’m here to pick Isaac up for practice.” She said.

“Natalie,” The man – Isaac’s father, she assumed – repeated, “John Lahey, Isaac’s dad. He should be out in a minute.” He leaned back from the door. “ _Isaac!_ There’s a girl here for you!” He shouted. Natalie gave a nervous smile and shifted on her feet. “Are you on the lacrosse team, too?”

“Yeah, I-” She began.

“A girl on the lacrosse team,” He mused in disbelief.

“It _is_ a co-ed conference.” She said, her voice tinged with a small dose of discomfort.

At that moment, Isaac skidded into the entryway, fighting with the straps on his backpack to put his arms through them and to yank his shoes on at the same time. “Sorry, Natalie- I’m-” His shoulder hit the wall as he forced his left shoe on and brushed past his father. “I’m ready. Bye dad!” He called, not looking back as he seized the sleeve of her jacket on his way past.

“Nice to meet you, Mister Lahey!” Natalie managed to get out as Isaac pulled her down the steps and she walked back to the car behind him.

She settled back into the drivers seat and pressed in the brake pedal before resting a hand on the shifter. She cast only a quick, fleeting glance in his direction before peeling out of the driveway.

“I’m sorry… my dad’s kind of-” He began.

She interrupted him with a nonchalant wave of her hand. John Lahey was a different man than his son, and she wasn’t going to impress that upon him. It wasn’t Isaac’s fault that his father apparently had some misogyny to work through. She could only imagine if she were limited by the impression of her own father. She gritted her teeth, and glanced at him. _Really_ looked at him for a second. He had a bruise on his jaw, near his chin, and a busted lip. She looked away.

Suspicion crept into her mind, and she locked down her expression to hide it. If there was something he wanted her to know, he'd tell her. “I actually-” She paused, feeling her heart jump into her esophagus. God, she didn’t want to ask this. She wished she at least had the school day to spend procrastinating thinking about how exactly she was going to ask Lahey to formal. Better to just get it out and over with, she supposed. “Do you have a date to formal?”

“No, I ah-” He started to respond, settling deeper into the passenger seat. “Wasn’t going.”

How was this more awkward than she imagined? “Would you go if someone asked you?”

“Are you asking me?”

“Would you say yes?”

“Probably.”

“Then I’m asking.”

“I’ll have to think about it.”

“ _Lahey_.”

“I’ll go.”

She rolled her eyes and shifted into an engine brake as they approached an intersection. The car growled in response, but it did nothing to drown out the internalized sound of her nerves.

She could hear him give a small laugh and she looked over at him to see him smiling to himself as he leaned farther back in the seat. “Can’t seem too desperate, right?” He offered.

“You’re going to make me regret asking.” She remarked.

“Sorry,” He returned. He wasn’t.

She assumed her day would have improved from there, until she managed to leave the locker room at almost exactly the same time Jackson did following practice, and he was casting her a sidelong, annoying, _knowing_ look as they started down the hall back towards the academic portion of the school.

“Thanks a lot for convincing Lydia that I have a thing with Lahey, by the way,” She said quietly, hoping that they wouldn’t be overheard.

Jackson looked at her from the corner of his eye. “Would you rather I said Greenberg?” He prompted. She gave a frustrated sigh. He seemed quite pleased with himself. “She was going to make you find a date either way. At least this way he’s on line and he’s not an asshole.”

Natalie clenched her jaw for a moment and slowed to a halt. “For the record, Whittemore,” She said bitterly, “I don’t appreciate you playing God in my life, but I do realize it could be much worse.” She eyed him for a moment, he stared at her expectantly, the slightest smug smirk on his lips. “Thanks.” She remarked.

“While we’re on the topic-” He started.

“Oh, no-” She said under her breath.

“ _Do_ you not have a thing with Lahey?” He asked, pulling his bag higher on his shoulder. “Because I definitely saw him get out of your car this morning.”

“He rides a _bike_ to school every morning, Whittemore.” She whispered. “I thought it’d be good, you know? For practice?”

“Right,” He said with a roll of his eyes. “As long as this _thing_ doesn’t get in the way of state, Isserman.”

“There is no _thing_.” She told him sharply. “The _thing_ doesn’t _exist_.”

He arched his eyebrows as he glanced at her before drifting away to go to whatever his first period class was. She wanted to punch him. What was a _thing_? What did he think this _thing_ was? Did he think they were… sleeping together, or something? She made a noise of frustration and headed to French. At least there she could listen to Allison talk about her plans for formal, or whatever her idea was for their French project that they were working on, and Nat could procrastinate thinking about her part in the impending school-sanctioned dance.

But Allison was still not talking to her. Whatever it was that had set her off was _big_ , and Natalie was starting to feel suffocated by it.


	15. Chapter 15

The rest of the day Nat felt like her insides were getting eaten away, slowly leeching into nothing. Allison had been upset with her plenty of times, sure, but not often for this long, and never with the intensity she could sense now. The worst part was that her cousin would not even talk to her long enough to figure out what was wrong.

She had a hunch, though, and it was a nasty one.

Natalie was becoming more and more sure that Kate had divulged the truth to Allison. And now, Nat was an agent of betrayal.

It finally surfaced after they’d gone home from school, and she realized she had never considered how much it would hurt to have Allison’s distrust on her shoulders.

“Were you ever going to say _anything_?” The girl asked, her voice tight and her lips pursed the same way they always were when she was angry and upset, and trying not to cry. For Allison, being devoid of hurt on the surface meant so much more than if it were blatant.

Nat didn’t trust herself to speak. She didn’t trust herself to even _look_ at Alli for more than a few moments before looking away.

“You were just going to let me believe a _lie_ my whole life?” Allison pressed. “You _and_ my parents.”

“I _wanted_ to tell you, Allison.” Nat began quietly, “You have _no idea_ how bad I wanted to tell you.”

“But you didn’t.” The brunette said, sharply, definitively. “And now here we are.”

Natalie’s eyes slid shut and she exhaled slowly through her nose.

Emotions – feelings – were messy, subjective things that she tried desperately to avoid. It was easier to live without them, but it was becoming more and more difficult to do so. Especially when things seemed to hit so ungodly close to home.

“So Kate told you.”

“She didn’t just tell me, she _showed_ me.” Allison corrected. Natalie looked up, suddenly afraid of what she meant by that. “Werewolves. What the weapons that Dad has _actually_ are.”

Nat felt herself deflate. “Allison-”

But her cousin just shook her head. “I don’t want to get into it right now.”

And Natalie had no arguments to that. There was nothing she could say or do about it.

* * *

She regretted everything.

As she sat in French class the next morning, Natalie felt like the dead. She had gotten _no_ sleep the previous night, and was a walking ball of fried nerves. She knew she probably looked at least half as bad as she felt, and she had to get through a full day of high school, _plus_ she’d said she’d work on chemistry with Lahey after class that night. She still didn’t know exactly how she’d stay awake that long, nonetheless be useful in _any_ way. She’d have to chug a half-dozen energy drinks.

She was carving a triangle into the pad of her thumb with her pen as Miss Morell droned on about whatever their lesson was. The feeling of the ballpoint digging into her hand kept her from falling asleep then and there, but Allison sat in the desk next to her watching with veiled concern.

“You look awful.” Her cousin had remarked as they left the classroom post-bell ring.

Nat stifled the urge to roll her eyes, “Thanks, Alli.”

Allison was quiet for a second, then- “Sorry, you just-”

“I slept like crap last night.” She reasoned, “I’ll be fine. Promise.”

“Look, I was upset and-”

“Rightfully so-”

“But I didn’t need to be so hard on you-”

“I don’t blame you, Alli-”

“And I don’t blame you, either.”

Natalie ground to a halt at that and turned to look at her cousin.

Allison clutched her books to her chest and looked at the floor. “I’m really not… Not mad at you.” She began, “I know you’re just listening to my parents and you don’t want to make them angry. I get it.” She bit her lip for a second, and out of sheer surprise, Natalie said nothing. “I’m still not happy that you didn’t say anything, but I know it’s not your fault. Not really.”

Nat deflated at her words and almost looked more wounded than before. “Thanks, Alli.”

Allison offered the smallest of smiles, “We can talk later… And don’t keep any more secrets from me.” She added before heading back down the hall to her locker.

Natalie could do nothing but spend her next couple classes trying not to fall asleep, and dreading the prospect of having to help Isaac Lahey study chemistry after school.

So when the time came, she found herself digging her fingertips into her temple, and her thumb into the flesh beneath her cheekbone to help keep herself present as they worked through the problem set. She had a cup of coffee at hand, and was being perhaps a bit too generous to herself with how quickly she was going through it. She seemed to be doing a good enough job reasoning through the problems, and helping Isaac understand them since he hadn’t made any comments about her being tired yet.

As she sat down after refilling her coffee mug for the third time, the door to the garage opened and Chris strode into the kitchen and saw the two of them seated at the table in the breakfast nook.

“Hey Uncle Chris,” She greeted listlessly without looking up, scribbling down a mole conversion.

“Natalie.” Chris returned cautiously.

She looked up and realized he was looking at the boy who was seated at her left. She _also_ realized that it had completely escaped her to warn either her aunt or uncle that she was going to have someone over. “This is Isaac Lahey.” She offered, “We’re working on chem.” Chris nodded slightly. “Isaac, my Uncle Chris.” She gestured between them with the eraser of her pencil before focusing back on the paper in front of her before every last ounce of focus she had left dissipated.

“Hi, Mister-.” Isaac said.

She imagined that her uncle waved off the formality, “It’s Chris.” He stated, “Natalie, you didn’t say anything about having a classmate here-”

Her attempt to remain productive being dashed, she looked up. “Sorry, I forgot, but I didn’t think-”

“Call me jaded by Allison’s version of _studying_.” He said, going to rummage through the fridge.

Nat made a face and groaned.

“I’m only saying it’s nice to know that not all teenagers think studying involves hickeys and-” He began as he pulled the lid off a Tupperware.

“ _Chris!_ ” She objected quickly, hoping to quash the conversation before it could get any more awkward.

Chris merely shrugged off-handedly as he continued to warm himself up something to eat.

Natalie wanted to self-destruct in embarrassment, or at least become small enough to fall into the heating vent on the floor and never come back out. She gritted her teeth and looked down at the textbook in front of her. She refused to look at Isaac, but she could tell he was uncomfortable too.

Moles. Easy. Conversions and ratios and- she glanced over at Isaac’s notebook to see whether he’d started the next problem yet.

“No-” She said, pointing with her eraser at the multiplication he’d started. “You have that one backwards.”

“But it’s one mole of chlorine-” He started to protest.

“One mole of _sodium chloride-_ ”

His head tipped and he held up a hand, “Okay, I’ve got it.” He said, scratching out his equation and starting over.

Natalie struggled through the last part of the assignment with the help of another cup of coffee and a growing migraine at the back of her skull. Finally she was stuffing her textbook and notes back into her bag, and Isaac was tossing his backpack over his shoulder.

“Thanks for the help, Isserman.” He said, “At least I’ll pass one assignment this quarter.”

She cast him a pointed look.

The corner of his mouth quirked up, and he gave a half-hearted shrug. “Well I’ll see you tomorrow, I-” He had started towards the door.

“You’re not walking home-”

“You said it yourself, it’s not far-”

“And it’s like dark outside and there’s all kinds of creepy shit happening-”

“ _Language Natalie!_ ” Chris shouted from the living room.

 _Was he seriously eavesdropping?_ She huffed without any coherent response to her uncle. “Let me drive you.”

And he did, thankfully. The short drive was quiet until they pulled up to his house, and Natalie was already starting to think about the warmth of her own bed and how she’d fall into it _immediately_ when she got home.

“See you tomorrow, Lahey.” She said as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

“Yeah,” He returned, casting a look at her. The smallest, most negligible hint of a smirk rested on his lips. “And uh- try to get some sleep.”

She just stared after him as he got out of the car and shut the door. She watched as he walked up to the front door and slipped inside.

She had genuinely not thought he’d be perceptive enough to notice, or that he would care enough. Maybe she had sold him short.

She was too exhausted to analyze it on the drive home, though, and Chris barely gave her enough time to shut the garage door as he watched her from the kitchen island. She suspected that he’d snitched a piece of chocolate from the stash she knew Aunt Vic kept hidden in one of the crocks.

“So this _Isaac-_ ” Chris began as she toed out of her sneakers.

Natalie groaned obnoxiously loud. “ _No_.” She said, “You are _absolutely not doing this_.”

He cast her a theatrically unassuming look and shrugged. She shot him back a grimace.

“He’s not doing well in chemistry, and he’ll get kicked off the team if his grades get too bad.” She said.

“And you’re naturally the person to help him?” Chris prompted.

“I’m not allowed to be nice?” She countered. “Besides, I figure I should _try_ to get along with him since Lydia’s forcing me to go to formal with him-”

“So,” Chris began, eyebrows arched. “He’s your date.”

She pursed her lips and exhaled sharply through her nose. “Sure, _he’s my date_.” She bit back, “But I want to make it clear that it is actually, really, not what you’re trying to make it sound like.” She crossed her arms.

“Natalie, I know your Aunt Vic would have a different opinion, but it is _okay_ for you to make friends and-”

“No,” She looked away, pressing her arms tighter against her ribs. “It’s not though. Not when I know that in a few months, there’ll be a ‘for sale’ sign in the yard and a moving truck outside.” The words tasted stale and sour on her tongue. Like they were old and overused, but they never quite lost all their bite. “And familiarity breeds weakness.”

“Stop quoting your grandmother.” He told her severely, though it sounded almost tired.

Now it was her turn to shrug. “I’m used to it, Uncle Chris.” She said, “I’m not like Allison. I’ve never expected anything different, so I don’t really feel like I’m losing anything.” No, she wasn’t losing anything. She was only missing out. Somehow that felt different to her. One more bearable than the other. The first was like a pang, but the second was merely wistful. “Besides, everyone at school lives in a different world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!!
> 
> I hope you guys are ready to see the end of season one, because we are VERY close to the finale. 
> 
> You all rock, but I do have a couple shout-outs to throw in for those who left kudos & comments since the last chapter, so thanks to Moonyong989, AridBird, ThatBrazilianGirl, and all the guests who took the time to voice their opinions and press some buttons! Love it!


	16. Chapter 16

At first, winter formal had seemed perfectly stupid. Now, Natalie felt like it was more of an excuse to make _her_ feel stupid. In her stupid dress that stupid Lydia had picked out for her, and stupid Jackson being _Jackson_ , which is to say that he was being an ass to Allison and there wasn’t a lot Nat could do about it. Then of course, Lydia being understandably pouty about the Jackson-breakup-Allison’s-date issue. Also, stupid Scott being banned from the dance and making it sound like it was the worst thing that had literally ever happened. And stupid Derek was _still_ missing…

And stupid Nat just really didn’t want to deal with it all right now, especially since she also had to deal with stupid Lahey.

She pulled up in front of the cozy little ranch house and put the car in park, looking up at the windows. She left the car running, popped open her door and slid out, careful to keep the skirt of her dress from riding up. She headed up the sidewalk that lead up to the front door, seeing movement from through the curtains over the windows just before Isaac Lahey burst out of the front door and swung it shut behind himself, seeming to be in a hurry to get to the car.

Two things occurred to Natalie at once.

First: He cleaned up nice. He’d done something with his hair, accentuating his curls while keeping them out of his eyes. And his tie was roughly the same dark blue as her dress. He looked more like a marketing intern off to a meeting than a high schooler on the way to winter formal.

And: She shouldn’t have asked him. She could have just not gone to formal at all instead of playing into Lydia’s hands. She couldn’t afford to have her own friends. They’d be gone in a few months once the threat was handled in Beacon Hills. She would be sent to scout, and Allison would follow soon after.

This had bad news written all over it.

“Sorry, I didn’t-” He began to say, reaching where she was on the sidewalk.

“Sorry what?” She said, glancing at him before turning back towards the car.

“Nothing, I-” He started, “You look nice.” He said somewhat lamely.

She arched her brows and stopped at the passenger door. “You don’t look so bad yourself, Lahey.” She looked back at him. “You wanna drive?”

He looked at the car, then back at her. “ _Drive_?” He inquired disbelievingly.

“Yes. You know, with the pedals and the wheel-”

“Actually?” He prodded, as if he expected her to retract the offer.

“Actually actually.” She replied.

She caught his fleeting glance back towards the house as he turned to walk around the car. She slid into the passenger seat of her own car, which she couldn't remember _ever_ doing, and he dropped into the driver’s seat. He ran his hands over the wheel before letting one fall to the shift knob.

“Nice car, I know, but if we’re late, Lydia _will not_ let us live it down.” She said, buckling her seatbelt.

“Sorry, it’s just… it’s been a while since I got to drive.” He remarked.

“In that case, don’t break it.”

He stared at the speedometer for a second, “Are you sure you-”

“ _Jesus Christ, Lahey-_ ” She began.

“Fine! Okay.” He cut across her, and pressed in the clutch as he moved the shifter.

There was something about letting someone else drive her car that felt both anxiety-inducing and cathartic at the same time. The most valuable thing she owned, the thing that made her feel most in control of her life. But somehow, being the one _allowing_ someone else to take control of it was weirdly metaphorical. She felt like she was so used to things just being decided _for_ her. It was nice to make a decision for herself now and then.

Like how she’d decided to keep Scott’s werewolfi-ness to herself. Or how she’d helped Derek Hale that one time weeks prior. Or how she’d basically… made her own first friend in Isaac Lahey.

Maybe she was starting her rebellious phase.

* * *

She saw Jackson and Allison walking up to the school at the same time that they pulled into the parking lot, right behind Stiles’ Jeep. Isaac pressed the engine stop once they were parked and looked a lot like he wanted to say something about the car, but restrained himself, instead looking over at her.

She looked up at the school for a moment, wondering if she could feign a foot cramp all night and hide at a table. But she knew that wasn’t actually an option. Not just because Allison and Lydia wouldn’t allow it, but because it was selfish. She’d asked Lahey to formal. The least she could do is not be a bitch about it.

As she looked at the doors to the school, she saw a shadow flit across the roof. _Scott_.

Great, so she would have to at least keep her wits about her enough to do damage control for him. She’d have to talk to Stiles to figure out what was going on.

The boy in question, and Lydia, stood next to the Jeep as Isaac and her climbed out of her car and walked over.

“I told you that was your color.” Lydia remarked with a self-satisfied smile before she looked at Isaac appraisingly. “And he even matched his tie.” She added, casting a look towards Stiles. “At least two out of three got it right.”

Stiles glanced down at his tie, and then appeared relieved to see that it was plaid in the same shade as Lydia’s silver dress. From what Nat could tell, she was talking about Jackson.

“Instead of shaming someone who’s not even here-” Natalie began.

“You’re right.” Lydia said, shaking her head once to toss her hair over her shoulder. “It’s time.” She spun and looped an arm through Stiles’, and the four of them headed up the steps.

“Stiles,” Nat said, getting the guy’s attention as they made it inside the gym and headed for an open table, “Scott?”

For a second, it looked like he wanted to brush her off with a ‘he can’t come’, but thought different when she arched her brows. “ _Yeah_ …” He said.

“Are you gonna fill me in?” She asked as the four of them settled into chairs near the dancefloor.

He sighed, eyes flicking at Isaac, but he apparently decided that he wasn’t a threat. “He’s here,” He said, “But he’ll wait until Coach is distracted.”

She shook her head, “What an idiot.”

“Isn’t he on academic probation?” Isaac commented.

“Yeah, and it’ll be a lot worse than that if he gets caught.” Nat said.

“He won’t get caught.” Stiles said, as if he were offended that she thought any of their plans could fail.

“And what’s your track record, Stilinski?” She countered.

He opened his mouth to retort, but then hesitated and looked away irritably.

She was tempted to just wash her hands of their nonsense and let them crash and burn. She watched Jackson and Allison claim some of the floor not far from their table and start dancing. Lydia was sitting somewhat sullenly at the table, people watching. As she looked back at her cousin, Allison caught her eye and tipped her head pointedly, an invitation to get up and get on the dancefloor.

Natalie’s stomach flipped, but she looked over at Lahey, who sat at the table next to her, fiddling with the button on his sleeve and glancing up at the mess of people crowed in the gym, and she decided to box away her pride for now.


	17. Chapter 17

Natalie did not _do_ dances. She did not participate in high school functions, and she did not allow herself into close physical proximity to others… outside of kicking some ass in lacrosse, of course. So no, she did not _do_ dances. And she would not _have been_ dancing if it weren’t for Allison.

 _God_ , she hated Allison.

Well, she loved Allison.

But she hated Allison.

So, here she was, trying to swallow the awkwardness she felt all the way down to her toes, with her hands on Lahey’s shoulders, and his on her waist. She didn’t even know if this could be considered _dancing_. Just swaying to music while inside someone’s personal bubble. She didn’t like it. But at least he smelled nice, under the apprehension and nerves she could sense at the surface. And he was being… gentlemanly.

Her stomach twisted again and she had the same agonizing thought that she’d had earlier. _She shouldn’t’ve asked him_. She wasn’t _normal_ enough to be able to afford _normal_ things like dances and dates.

“I’m glad I said yes.” His voice broke her out of her tense train of thought and she looked him in the eyes as she realized she’d been starting to truly zone out.

Her lips wanted to curl into a smile. She allowed only the smallest one to surface. ”Would you really have said no?”

The fact that she wanted to be able to say she was glad she’d asked him hurt. Oblivious, he smiled back at her. “Probably not.”

“Then I’m probably glad you said yes, too.” She offered, but a disturbance in the mass of dancing teens drew her attention over his shoulder. McCall. He’d actually snuck into the Winter Formal and was dancing with Danny while Coach blundered at him, clearly trying to tell him he wasn’t supposed to be at the dance, but it looked far more like he was trying to tell him not to dance with Danny. Soon enough, Scott got away and ran to Allison. Natalie wasn’t positive whether she was more annoyed or just impassive about the ordeal. She was certainly not surprised.

If her focus had been on Isaac instead of her cousin’s troublemaking (ex?)boyfriend, she may have noticed his eyes drop to her lips before he realized that she was no longer paying any attention to him.

They didn’t stay on the dancefloor for long before the music changed, and they headed back to a table. Natalie commandeered a stack of cards from a half-assed poker table and once they’d collected snacks and drinks, they settled into a game of bullshit.

It became clear to her very quickly that Lahey was a good liar. It was hard for her to use any of her heightened senses to tell if he wasn’t telling the truth, thanks to the noise and the amount of people around them, but even then, she wasn’t sure if it would have helped her. In fact, she could hardly remember losing a game of bullshit until then.

To her surprise, she was having a good time, and it looked like Isaac was too.

Until her phone rang. Her smile faded slightly, but disappeared entirely when she saw the caller ID. She looked up at the dancefloor where she’d seen Scott and Allison last. Her eyes flitted over the room. Her stomach dropped.

She looked back at Isaac, who could clearly tell something was wrong. He was watching her with muted concern.

“I have to take this call.” She said, scooting forward in her chair. “I’ll be back.” She stood up and marched out of the gym.

“Yes-” She answered, once she was out in the hall, her free hand covering her other ear so that she could hear over the music.

 _“Get out of the school, get in your car, and get home_.” Chris’s voice reached her through the earpiece. Her guts fell through the floor and into some fossilized ocean that may have existed in California during the Mesozoic era. _“Allison and Kate are heading to the Washington house. I need you here._ No questions.”

She backed against the brick wall and slammed her head back into it. She was having fun. A fun, good night, that made her feel more like a regular teenager than like a highly trained killer who tracked down supernatural creatures. “Is there anything-”

“ _Now, Natalie Ann._ ”

The line went dead and she hit her head back on the brick again and looked up at the ceiling, watching the spots waltz across her vision. What the hell had she expected? This was her punishment for getting too attached. She was too distracted to see what had happened with Allison, and now something bad had happened.

She peeled herself away from the wall and walked back into the gym, her heels clicking on the lacquered wood. Isaac’s eyes met hers and she almost wanted to turn around and walk out without talking to him.

“What’s going on?” He asked as she snatched her clutch off the table.

“My Uncle called. There’s a family emergency-” She said, not able to meet his eyes. “I can drop you off, or if you could find someone-”

“I can get a ride.” He cut her off. “There’s a bunch of lacrosse guys here, I’m sure someone can take me.”

She looked up at him. Jesus Christ, why did he have to be so _nice_? “I’m sorry.” She said quietly.

“It’s fine,” He assured her, “Go.”

She gritted her teeth. She wanted to grab his hand that was resting on the table. She almost wanted to hug him. Instead, she turned and strode quickly from the gymnasium and once she was out of the school, she ran to her car.

* * *

When she ducked inside the house from the garage, Chris came around the corner from the den. He looked _livid_. More pissed that she had ever seen him before.

“What happened?” Natalie asked.

“Your aunt and I have a lot to discuss with you.” He said sharply. The tone of his voice was far more severe than she could ever remember him using before.

 _Oh, fuck_.

They knew.

 _They knew_.

She was about to regret her entire time at Beacon Hills. Hell, she was about to regret being born.

He dumped a handful of broken ceramic into the garbage. “But the details will have to wait.” He said, “Kate and Allison have already taken off. And since this mess could have been sorted out much quicker if you had been forthcoming-” He set his hands on the counter and leaned towards her, “You are going to help me fix it.”

She hovered where she’d stopped, and played with the clasp on her clutch as she waited for him to continue.

“Go get changed.” He told her, “You can tell me what you know on the way to the hospital.”

“The hospital?” She asked, staring at him.

“Your friend Lydia was just admitted.” He said, “She was attacked by the alpha on the lacrosse field. She’s in the ICU.”

Nat dropped her clutch onto the counter. “Are you _serious?_ ” She demanded. “Is she-”

“She’s stable.” He said, “Go change.”

Reluctantly, Natalie went up the stairs and into her bedroom, and quickly changed out of her dress into jeans.

As she laid the dress onto her bed, she had to admit that even if it wasn't her style, it was still beautiful. Lydia really had done a good job picking it out. Natalie was just sad that it only got to see any use for a couple hours before being put away again.

But she didn’t have time to lament a dress. She ran back downstairs and was pretty sure she didn’t imagine the hardness in her aunt and uncle’s eyes when they landed on her.

Chris started towards the garage, and she followed him to the arms cabinet at the back. He opened it, handing her a handgun and holster, which she strapped around her waist, and he holstered his own gun at his hip before pulling down an assault rifle.

She eyed him uncertainly, but kept her mouth shut.

“We don’t know what we’re going to deal with here.” He told her in explanation, “Best to be prepared.” He stuck the rifle into the back of the Tahoe and moved to jump into the driver’s seat.

She hesitantly followed, knowing that as soon as she sat in that car and shut the door, she was going to have to spill all. Reluctantly, she climbed in.

“Thomas is meeting us at the hospital.” He said, “I’m positive that Jackson and that other one… the Sheriff’s son, will be there.” He added, “They can help us find Scott.”

She kept her eyes down.

“ _Scott_ is the beta.” She felt her uncle look over at her. “Which you neglected to mention.”

“I know.” She mumbled.

“ _You know_?” He repeated, “That’s it? After more than a _month_ , that’s all you have to say for yourself?”

She pressed her lips together and said nothing.

“ _Natalie_.” He continued, “You have put _dozens_ of people in danger by keeping this to yourself-”

“Scott _hasn’t hurt anyone_.” She argued.

“You _don’t know that_.” He countered.

“I was _there_ on the full moon-” She protested.

“And you _still_ didn’t tell me or Vic?” He retorted.

“He didn’t hurt anyone!” She said, “I _made sure-_ ”

“That’s not your job, Natalie.” He told her, “Not yet. You are trying to take responsibility for something that you’re not ready to.” She crossed her arms, “We have the code for a reason, so that we can properly handle-”

“You thought it was the second beta.” She said, “You thought that it was _Scott_ who had killed that bus driver and-”

“We wouldn’t have rushed through it with someone so young-”

“But what about Kate? Or even Aunt Vic?” She interrupted, “You _know_ they can be impulsive and-”

“That’s not your concern-”

“And what if me being a good little informant means someone dies when they shouldn’t?” Her voice was starting to get louder, and she was starting to feel her ears warming up.

“You don’t have that obligation yet-”

She opened her mouth to say something again.

“Natalie Ann.” He interjected. “I know that you had good intentions, but Lydia might not have gotten attacked tonight if you’d just _told_ us right away. Your aunt and I will make decisions.”

She sat and stared out the windshield broodingly as they pulled into the lot at Beacon Hills Memorial.

“Now, tell me what you know."


	18. Chapter 18

She did. She told him everything. And after Chris and Thomas had interrogated Jackson and Stiles, they had a lead. But Natalie wanted to see Lydia before they left.

She was in the first room, hooked up to a ventilator. What was visible of her arms were covered with bruises, and she had cuts on her face. To be entirely honest, she looked like she was dying. Natalie felt guilt settle heavy on her shoulders, weighing her down and making her feel like the floor should give way beneath her feet.

She owed it to Lydia to take care of this. To issue punishment where it was due. To beat the ever-loving _shit_ out of Peter Hale. And to beg for her own forgiveness once this was done.

So, she was anxious to head to the old Hale house, where Chris was certain that Derek was being held.

They left the SUV at the entrance to the preserve and walked the rest of the way. What they found at the house, though, was worse than Natalie had expected.

In all fairness, though, she wasn’t exactly sure what she _did_ expect, but perhaps it would have been a little less chaos.

Derek was on the ground, unmoving, with arrows sticking out of him. Scott was laying on the ground as well, looking unharmed, but with Kate’s gun pointed at his face. She stood over him, with Allison behind her, looking like she’d been knocked aside.

“Kate!” Chris called. He stopped a few yards away, and Nat not far behind. “I know what you did.” He said. Kate’s eyes flicked towards the scorched house in front of her. “Put the gun down.”

Chris had not said anything about it on their way to the preserve, but Natalie had enough sense to put the pieces together, and Kate’s glance at her own handiwork was nothing short of an admission. The thought of her adoptive aunt being responsible for the Hale fire made her guts twist and left her with a sour taste in her mouth.

“I did what I was told to do.” She said, gun still trained on Scott.

“No one asked you to murder innocent people. There were children in that house, ones who were human.” Chris said.

Allison’s mouth was open, eyes flicking between her father and her aunt. Scott started to inch away.

“Look what you’re doing now. You’re holding a gun at a sixteen-year-old boy with no proof he spilled human blood.” Chris continued, “We go by the code- _nous chassons ceux qui nous chassent.”_

“We hunt those who hunt us.” Allison whispered the translation.

But when Kate didn’t lower her gun, Chris raised his. “Put the gun down.” He said, and at no response, pulled the trigger and shot the tree over her shoulder. “Before I put you down.”

Kate obeyed, reluctantly. Clearly, she was surprised by the threat from her own brother, but not enough to assume he was bluffing.

Scott sucked in a deep breath, relieved to no longer be staring down the barrel of a gun held by someone who would _gladly_ put a bullet in his skull.

But if there hadn’t been enough drama yet, the door to the house began to creak open, and with it, everyone’s eyes turned to stare into the dark recess beyond it.

“Allison, get back.” Chris snapped.

Scott and Allison got up off the ground, and the five of them gathered to look in the now open house. Natalie pulled out her gun, aiming it at the steps as Chris and Kate did the same.

“What is it?” Allison asked under her breath.

“It’s the alpha.” Scott answered.

Allison raised her bow, and a shape darted out the door of the house, too fast for any of them to get in a shot. It ran past again, knocking Chris out first.

Natalie swore under her breath and pulled back the slide on her gun. But as they all turned to try to get eyes on the assailant, Natalie was shoved. Her gun fell from her hand and skidded away. As she’d fallen, she hit her knee on something that made her leg explode into pins and needles.

Next down was Allison, then Scott. Natalie tried to crawl to grab her gun, as Peter revealed himself, seized Kate, and drug her into the house. Allison quickly followed.

Natalie shouted her name, but her cousin paid her no mind as she ran after her aunt. Nat finally got her gun and tried to push herself up to stand as the feeling started to come back to her leg.

“Scott,” She said, trying to help him get to his feet as he regained his bearings.

A fully wolf-out Derek approached them, dropping a bloody arrow to the ground as he did. Natalie felt traitorously grateful that he appeared fine.

“We’ll take care of Allison,” Scott told her, “You check on Chris.”

She nodded and moved back to where her uncle was still unconscious on the ground. She rolled him onto his back once she’d determined nothing was broken, and the boys disappeared into the house. Soon, the sounds of a struggle drifted out the open door, and Allison came running from around the back of the house.

“Dad!” She said, dropping down beside them.

“Kate?” Natalie asked.

Instead of answering, Allison just shook her head.

Well shit.

She didn’t want that to hurt. Not now, when she knew what Kate had done, but Nat’s heart felt squeezed for a second, and both girls focused back on the man laying on the ground between them. Until Scott came flying out of the boarded window, quickly followed by the alpha.

“ _Fuck_.” Natalie hissed, lunging for where she’d set her gun a couple feet away. In the meantime, Scott managed to hold the alpha off – just barely…

Then a set of headlights came up over the hill. Stiles and Jackson quickly climbed out of the Porsche, and Stiles chucked something in the alpha’s direction. Much to their collective dismay, the monster caught it. But Natalie knew what it was. Lydia’s Molotov cocktail.

She aimed her gun and pulled the trigger… but nothing happened.

“God fucking-” She pulled back the slide and ejected the bad bullet as the alpha roared, then aimed again, and fired. The cocktail exploded into flames.

They watched, speechless as the creature tried to shake off the fire climbing up its arm. And Jackson threw a second Molotov at it. The flames had now fully engulfed the alpha, and in one last-ditch effort, he turned to dart towards Allison.

“No!” Scott yelled before Natalie even could register what was happening. He jumped forward and slammed his body against the alpha’s burning chest, forcing him back.

The alpha gave a few weak growls and gurgles, before seeming to melt back into Peter Hale, then collapsing on the far side of what used to be the house’s lawn.

Allison approached Scott, who was still sitting on the ground where he’d landed after running into the alpha. Natalie focused back on her uncle, shaking him slightly.

“Uncle Chris,” She said hopefully as he started to stir, and his eyes opened. “Thank God-” She whispered as he got to his feet and looked over to meet eyes with Scott, who had just kissed Allison.

But everyone’s attention was taken when Derek Hale emerged from the house to approach the place on the ground where his uncle was splayed, struggling for air.

Scott scrambled to his feet and tried to appeal to Derek, something about the cure and only being able to get it from the one that bit him. Derek hesitated for only a moment before slashing Peter’s throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to awhisperofsilk for the comments! This is the end of season one.... are you ready for season two to start?


	19. Chapter 19

Natalie was trying to ignore the noises in the next room over. The giggling, the bed, the _crashing of lamps_ , apparently. And she had thought it was bad when they were _allowed_ to be dating, but it seemed that _secretly_ dating was far, far worse.

Unfortunately for Nat, calculus was less distracting.

And unfortunately for Allison, it sounded like Vic and Chris were home early.

She could hear Aunt Vic barge into Allison’s room and unsuccessfully look for Scott. To her cousin’s credit, Natalie had to admit that she was getting very good at hiding evidence.

As she was about to try once again to get through the last of her homework, something outside snuck under her skin. A sound… A scream… That sounded bone-chillingly like _Lydia_.

She rushed to the window and slammed it open before sticking her head out, to see Scott, in his boxers and clutching his clothes, perched on the roof. She cast him a grating look. He looked back at her with wide eyes. Natalie could tell that Vic had now left Allison’s room.

“You hear that?” She hissed.

“Lydia?” He answered.

She nodded.

“I’m going to get the Jeep.” He said, shuffling through his clothes.

“I can meet you at the hospital.” She said, then slipped back inside, slamming the window shut and snatching up her jacket and a pair of shoes to tug on as she ran to Allison’s room.

“We’re going _now_.” She pulled Allison’s coat down from where it was hanging on the door and shoved it at the girl, who was sitting on her bed, hovering over a history book.

“Where are we going?” Allison asked, shooting to her feet. “Is it Lydia?”

“The hospital,” Nat said, checking the battery on her phone and pulling on a pair of gloves that had been in her coat pocket. “I don’t know what, but I’m pretty sure it has to do with Lydia.”

Alli shook her head in disbelief, pulling a hat down over her hair as she shoved her feet into a pair of boots.

A door slammed below them and Nat darted to the window to see the SUV’s tearing out of the driveway.

“Quickly.” Natalie said, patting her pockets to be sure she had her keys.

Allison shoved the laces of her boots under the tongue rather than taking the time to tie them and they started down the stairs. “Did they take the Tahoe?” Allison asked.

“Both of them.” Nat replied, pushing through the door into the garage and slipping around Allison’s car to get to her own.

“ _Both_.” Allison repeated and swore under her breath.

“Exactly my thoughts.” The girls dropped into their respective seats and Nat jammed her foot into the brake and pressed in the start button as Allison reached over and pushed the garage opener.

The car reversed out and down the driveway much faster than what would be considered _safe_ or _reasonable_ , then turned out onto the street. Allison jabbed at the garage door opener again and the overhead door began to slink back down.

“Can you dial Scott?” Nat tossed her phone across the console and Allison caught it and started scrolling through her contacts.

“You have him on speed dial?” Allison prompted, looking at her cousin.

Natalie glanced at her, then back out the windshield as she turned onto the main highway that ran through Beacon Hills. “I’ve had to talk to him about a lot of stuff with your dad.” She said in explanation. “He’s not even top three, Alli-”

Allison’s eyebrows lifted up her forehead as she pressed the call button and shook her head, “Just curious,” She passed the phone back.

Natalie held the phone up to her ear and listened to it ring, once, twice- They were only a couple minutes from the hospital now.

“ _Natalie-”_

“Hospital?” Nat inquired without introduction.

“ _Yeah, pulling up now in the Jeep_.”

“Be there in a minute.” She said and immediately hung up without awaiting a response

“He’s already there?” Allison asked.

“With Stiles,” Natalie answered.

“Stiles has been there all weekend,” Allison corrected, rolling her eyes.

“He’s like a puppy dog,” Natalie said, turning onto the street the hospital was located on. “Sickeningly adorable and absolutely mindless when it comes to his favorite person.”

“Lydia.”

“ _Lydia_.”

They pulled into the lot, immediately seeing the Jeep stopped in a No Parking zone with its running lights on. Natalie pulled into a thirty minute stall a few cars away.

“I’m going to hop in with them.” Allison said, elbowing open the door.

“I’ll follow.” Nat returned in agreement. Her cousin slipped out of the car and ran over, reaching the Jeep just after Stiles had clambered in.

Natalie backed out of her spot, and soon they were cruising down a wooded backroad. After a couple seemingly senseless turns, they ended up parking on a gravel road and had to proceed on foot. As Natalie stepped on the brake, something hit her heel. Once she’d turned the car off, she reached down and pulled up a wallet. She flipped it open to find Isaac Lahey’s drivers license looking back at her.

She cursed under her breath, but this was a problem for later. She left the wallet and climbed out of the car to catch up with the other three.

“Do you know any more than Allison about what’s happening?” Scott asked.

“With the hunters?” Nat inquired, then shook her head when he looked at her expectantly. “I know more people are coming to the funeral. I know Chris and Aunt Vic are getting a lot of pressure to come up with an end-all-be-all for Beacon Hills’ supernatural problem.”

“For Scott?” Stiles prompted, as if to simplify it.

“More like for Derek,” She disagreed, “But yeah.”

“Does that solution include killing all the werewolves in Beacon Hills?” Scott inquired.

“Historically,” She said, “Yes.”

“Awesome.” Scott muttered under his breath as a building started to form through the trees ahead of them.

It would have been nearly impossible to not recognize where they were.

“She came here?” Stiles asked, unbelieving, “Are you sure?” He turned to look at the other three.

“This is where the scent leads.” Scott answered, looking at his friend, then back at the decrepit house that once belonged to the Hale family.

Stiles’ eyes flicked then to Natalie. She just nodded. She was not nearly as capable at tracking as Scott, but she couldn’t deny that she too could pick up Lydia’s scent here. Stiles reluctantly turned back to look at the ruins.

“Alright,” He said, “But has Lydia ever been here?”

“Not with me.” Allison responded. She looked at Scott and they all began to proceed closer to the building. “Maybe she came here on instinct, like she was… looking for Derek.”

“You mean, looking for an Alpha?” Scott suggested.

Natalie stepped up to walk beside Stiles. She wanted to stride right up to the door and start searching the house. This lollygagging made her skin crawl, though she knew that it was smart for them to be cautious.

“Wolves need a pack, right?” Allison pressed.

“Not all of them.”

“But would she have been drawn to an Alpha, is it an instinct to be part of a pack?”

“Yeah, we’re stronger in packs.”

“Like strength in numbers.”

“No, like literally stronger, faster, better in every way.”

“Is that the same for an Alpha?”

“Yeah, it’ll make Derek stronger, too.”

Natalie watched as Stiles walked around the three of them, looking at the litter on the ground as if he were hunting for a clue. He crouched down a few feet behind them, a wire glinted as he ran a finger over it. Nat roused from where she was standing with her arms crossed and moved to crouch beside him.

“Trip wire?” She breathed. He looked at her before turning to look at the other two.

“Hey,” He said, “Look at this. You see this?”

Allison turned and walked over, looking at the wire with them. Scott watched from where he was.

“We think it’s a trip wire.” He said, then pulled on it.

Natalie heard the metallic noise of the trap engaging and looked back over her shoulder to see Scott swinging slightly, hanging from one leg. She bit back a laugh before it occurred to her that it was probably alarmed. And she probably knew who set it.

“ _Stiles_?” Scott said.

“Yeah, buddy.” Stiles remarked, turning to look at Scott. “Oh-” He said when he realized the predicament.

The three of them stood up, Allison covered her mouth with her hand. Natalie tracked the wire attached to Scott’s ankle, trying to find a good place to attempt to dismantle it.

“Next time you see a trip wire?” Scott said, then spread his arms wide from where he was dangling a couple feet from the ground. “Don’t trip it.”

Stiles pointed at him, “Yeah, noted.”

Stiles and Allison started towards Scott, and Nat started towards one of the trees that she could see had a pulley attached to the side, wire running through it.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!” Scott whispered quickly. They all froze and looked at him. “Someone’s coming.” Natalie lifted her chin to try to see if she could catch a scent or some noise of approach. “Hide!” He told them sharply. When they all just looked around for the mystery person, he raised his voice slightly. “ _Go_!”

They tore off away from the direction that they’d come and ducked behind a couple trees.

Natalie looked across the gap at Stiles as she heard her Uncle Chris ask Scott how he was. But she knew her uncle was not alone. Thomas and Roland were also with him. They stayed put as Scott explained that he was looking for Lydia, and Chris in turn creatively threatened to cut him in half if he didn’t leave Allison and Lydia alone. Then the hunters departed and the three of them left their hiding spot to go back to Scott and try once more to remove him from the trap. Allison and Stiles went over to the pulley that Nat had found earlier, and Natalie just looked up at Scott with her arms folded.

He looked up at the wire, then snapped out his claws. He pulled his torso up and cut across the wire, stretching his legs down as he fell to land on his feet. “Thanks,” He said, looking at the two of them who were still messing with the pulley, “But I think I got it.” He looked at Natalie. “No thanks to you.” She stuck her tongue out at him and they all started up to the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who left kudos following the last chapter, particularly Nicholaj84, Ausrhino, thewinterstripper, and awhisperofsilk for the comment!


	20. Chapter 20

They had to push through noisy crowds of reporters to reach the cemetery. It was far too many for a town like Beacon Hills, so Natalie assumed that there must have been national coverage on Kate’s crimes, both the real and the accounted for. Sheriff Stilinski seemed to have been entirely unprepared for the barrage. Barriers had been set up, but the big city reporters had ignored them altogether, which then prompted similar behavior from the local news casts.

Police ushered them through the best they could, with Allison and Natalie between Chris and Vic. As soon as they were free of the crowd and on the graveyard, however, Chris looked at his wife meaningfully. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

Aunt Vic straightened her jacket, a tense, quick movement that betrayed her anger more than her tone when she spoke. “Well, it wasn’t _my_ idea.”

“I tried telling him,” Chris said, his arm still around Allison’s slightly slumped frame. “But he insisted on making a point of it.”

“If he insisted, then he can deal with this when he gets here.” Vic said sharply.

“When who gets here?” Allison asked, looking at her mom. Natalie already had an idea of who they meant.

“Just sit down, sweetheart.” Vic said as they stepped up to the meager arrangement of chairs and sat in the first row.

Natalie grasped quickly at Allison’s hand once they had settled into the chairs. Allison looked up, appearing ever so slightly relieved. When Natalie glanced back over her shoulder at the flock of reporters, she saw three finely dressed men striding towards them, at the point of their trio was Gerard Argent. Chris’ father, and Allison’s grandfather. The patriarch of the Argent family.

Nat had never met the man. Gerard had not once travelled to see them, and from what she knew, Allison hadn’t been to visit him in _years_. Natalie had heard things, though. That he was a hardass. That he was strict with the code until it served him to veer away. That his usual way was unforgiving and even brutal at times.

He walked up, greeted both of her parents first, then turned to Allison and asked if she remembered him, to which she nodded. He came across genuine, unassuming. Nat liked to think that she knew better, though. “And Natalie Deponte, Victoria’s niece.” He said finally, “It’s nice to meet you, dear.” He told her, however it sounded more stately than warm. His hands grasped one of hers for a moment, as if in a comforting gesture, but she didn’t _feel_ it. It seemed like he was going through the motions, which made her nerves scream. He was here for the death of his _daughter_. The theatrics felt almost criminal.

She looked at her Aunt Vic, who was staring at the casket before them, rather than their company. It gave her an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

* * *

“Why is he here?”

Natalie glanced up from mindlessly scrolling social media on her laptop. Allison had stretched herself out on one side of the sectional, staring up at the ceiling fan as Nat laid on her stomach on the opposite side of the ‘L’, legs kicked up over the armrest.

“Because his daughter was just buried?” Natalie answered, before realizing she definitely could have used a euphemism that might have been less harsh. She winced slightly.

Allison shook her head, brows knitted, “No- I mean, he’s _staying_.”

Nat shrugged, “How am I supposed to know?”

“You’re the one in training, right?” Alli countered.

Natalie looked back up at her cousin and just _looked_ at her for a second. “I _guess_ …” She sighed and pulled herself up into a sitting position, dropping her head back against the top of the couch. “I would think that he’s convinced that things are out of hand. That he needs to stay until it’s sorted out.”

“Sorted out, as in-” Allison began to say. Nat just met her eyes meaningfully. “But he can’t just… kill _every_ werewolf in Beacon Hills, I mean, the code-”

“Isn’t super specific.” Natalie finished for her. “Certain families adopt different guidelines, but really…” She trailed off and shrugged, “We just have to hope that your dad can calm him down.”

“What about Mom, though? Isn’t she supposed to make the decisions?”

“I honestly don’t feel like Gerard would listen to Vic.” Natalie snapped her laptop shut, “Besides, your mom doesn’t even like Scott.”

“So you’re saying she’d want to _kill_ him?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Okay, then-” But Allison broke off as Nat’s phone buzzed and she snatched it off the coffee table, a new text illuminated on the screen.

“Stiles.” She said, eyes flicking as she read the short message, “They found Lydia.”

Allison perked up, scooting to the edge of the cushion as Natalie pressed the call button and switched it to speaker.

It rang once before Stiles’ voice came through from the other end. _“Yeah-”_

“Is she alright?” Allison interjected quickly. “Can we see her?”

Nat looked over at her cousin.

_“She seems fine.”_ Stiles answered after a sigh. Whether it was because of Allison’s needy tone, or the situation at large, Natalie wasn’t sure. _“They’re taking her back to Beacon Hills Memorial to observe her overnight. She doesn’t remember any of it, apparently-”_

“But she’s okay?” Nat asked.

_“Yeah, I mean, her vitals are good, I guess.”_ He continued, _“They’re not allowing visitors, though.”_

“Are you gonna stay at the hospital?” Natalie prompted.

There was a short pause, _“No, I think she’ll be fine. She’s lucid- seems pretty normal, actually. And I think I could probably use a shower.”_

“Good idea.” Allison said with a roll of her eyes.

“Thanks for the text,” Nat added, “We’ll see you tomorrow, Stiles.”

_“No problem. I’ll let you know if I hear anything else. Bye.”_

“Bye.” The girls returned and Natalie ended the call before tossing her phone into the corner of the sectional and rubbing her forehead.

“At least there’s one problem closer to being fixed.” Allison remarked.

“Yeah, but what-” Nat pressed her lips together and forced a breath out through her nose. “She was bitten, right? So what’s going on?”

Allison considered the question for a moment, squinting at the unlit fireplace. “If she’s at school tomorrow we can always try to get some information from her ourselves?”

“Because _that_ will definitely go over _so_ well.” Natalie shot her cousin a look.

“Okay. How about this.” Allison said, straightening her spine and holding her two pointer fingers up. “You have after school practice, right?” Natalie nodded. “So, what if you drive me to school, then I have an excuse to ask Lydia for a ride home, and I can talk to her about it one-on-one. You know how she gets when she feels like she’s being ganged up on-”

“But if you piss her off-”

“Natalie.”

“Fine.”

So the next morning, Natalie drove them both to school. Allison had texted Lydia and confirmed that she was going to be there.

“Can I just say that you two disgust me.” Nat remarked as they backed down the driveway and onto the street.

“What are you _talking_ about?” Allison prompted pointedly. Nat had sworn not to talk about Scott and Allison’s secret relationship anywhere that Vic and Chris would find out. Which usually meant quick comments under her breath at school, and abbreviated conversations in the car.

“I heard you sneak out at like, eleven last night.” She returned.

The brunette blushed slightly and fought back a smile, “Oh, come on, it wasn’t-”

Nat arched her brows and flicked a look at her cousin. Allison shifted in her seat and pressed her lips together. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I don’t have to hear you-”

“ _Oh my God-”_

“But seriously? You can work on _sneaking_.”

“It’s not _my_ fault that your room is _right next_ to mine.”

“What did you trip on?”

Allison stewed for a second before answering, “My computer cord.”

Natalie rolled her eyes as they pulled into a parking stall in the school lot. “I’m just saying-” She began, pressing the car’s off button and stepping out before shutting the door and realizing her mistake.

She opened the door again and reached beneath her seat to where the wallet had slid while she was driving. She shut the door once more and went to pull her bag out of the backseat.

“Just saying?” Allison prompted her, leaning against the passenger side of the car.

“Just saying that you should be glad your parents sleep on the other side of the house.” She finished.

Allison made a face, then looked at the redhead as they started walking towards where Lydia usually parked, and found her silver sedan sitting there, engine still running.

“How would you feel about switching rooms?” Alli remarked.

Natalie gave a short laugh, “You were ready to _fight_ me over the bigger closet,” She said, “I don’t think so.”

“You’re right. I don’t really want your room anyway.” She ceded as they stopped at Lydia’s bumper and waited for the girl to step out. She turned slightly to face Natalie, and glanced down at the folded wallet in her hands. “Is that Isaac’s?”

Nat herself looked down at it. She had no idea where Lahey’s locker was, nor what class he had in the morning, and she had already texted him saying that she could give it back at practice since she’d forgotten it wasn’t _morning_ practice this time… Even if he hadn’t responded… but nonetheless she decided that she should probably put it in her lacrosse locker right away since she didn’t lock her hall locker. The only detail that could probably make the situation worse after she’d left him at the dance and ran off with his money and ID, was if she then let it get stolen and had to find a way to explain _that_.

“He forgot it in my car-”

“You mean you stole it on accident when you totally ditched him at the formal.”

“With good reason.” She argued, but her guts twisted. She _had_ ditched him… and felt like she’d be lucky if he still wanted to talk to her at all.

“A good reason that you can’t tell him.” Allison said, looking into the cab of the car to see what was taking so long. Natalie glanced over as well to see Lydia fixing her eyeliner in the visor mirror.

“Family emergency.” Nat shrugged.

“Lame.”

Natalie exhaled loudly and shoved the wallet in her pocket.

Lydia finally stepped out of the driver’s seat, wearing a dress that was probably against the dress code due both to the low cut neckline and high cut hemline. Neither of the other girls said anything, though as they walked up to the school. Lydia and Allison started talking about the _fugue state_ that the former had been diagnosed with before they walked through the doors into the high school, and every student in eyeshot froze to stare at them.

The girl who’d wandered the woods naked for two days and couldn’t remember a thing of it, and the girls whose aunt was best known for animalistic torture of her victims and was the freshly notorious murderess of Beacon Hills.

Natalie wanted to punch each of them in the face for gawking so fucking obnoxiously. Lydia stopped only for a moment in surprise.

“Maybe it’s the nine pounds?” Allison suggested, referring to the comment Lydia had made about losing weight while on her two day escapade.

With a toss of her hair, Lydia marched towards the crowd as if she wasn’t daunted in the least. Natalie followed without hesitation, Allison on her heels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MANY thanks to all the guests who've left kudos, and of course to my repeat commenters (awhisperofsilk, particularly). And for my Isaac fans, prepare to have a focal point in the next chapter!


	21. Chapter 21

“Lahey!” She said, jogging down the hall to catch him. He stopped and looked back at her. He was wearing dark jeans and a black leather jacket, which struck her as odd. Every time she’d seen him in school before he was likely to be wearing beat up denim and a sweatshirt of some sort. “You left your wallet in my car at formal.” She said as she came within earshot.

He stopped and turned to look down at her. His hands were in his pockets and the way he looked at her made her feel uneasy. Something wasn’t right.

“I’ve got it in my locker,” She added.

The rest of the team kept filing down the hallway around them. A couple looked back over their shoulders to peer at the two of them curiously. She met Scott’s eyes as he passed. He looked like he knew something she didn’t.

Isaac nodded slightly, “Thanks,” He said.

“Yeah…” Natalie returned and nervously stepped to the side. When it was clear neither of them had any more to say, she headed down to the girls’ locker room, still feeling anxious about the encounter with Isaac. Something was definitely off.

She kicked her shoes off as she started spinning the lock on her lacrosse locker. She hated combination locks with a passion. Remembering the numbers, the way to turn them- She only kept this one on because it was a fairly easy set of numbers, and Coach had threatened to throw away anything they didn’t lock up after an incident the previous year.

Once she had it open, she started changing into her gear, feeling a bit awkward in the locker room by herself.

Nicole was MIA, which was no surprise. The girl had only come to one or two practices since the baseball team had started to practice. Her new boyfriend was on that team, and since she wasn’t on line, she didn’t care about skipping lacrosse practice to instead oogle at him. Becca, on the other hand, was on a holiday cruise in the Caribbean with her family and wouldn’t be back until the next week.

So, she was left alone in the girls’ locker room, which probably would have been ultra creepy with the dim lighting, dripping faucets, old weathered brick, and rusty lockers, if it weren’t for the fact that she could hear the boy’s shouting and laughing through the wall her locker room shared with theirs. Despite that, though, she still heard the door open.

“Decide to show up today, Nicole?” She asked without looking around the row of lockers that blocked the door from view. “Becca’s still gone, so I think Coach will appreciate-” She could hear feet approaching her as she pulled her shirt over her sports bra. It didn’t sound like Nicole’s feet. Nicole was a small, but quick girl. And she always wore sneakers. These were cleats.

But it registered too slowly, and the person’s scent hit her just as they turned the corner, face-to-face with her.

“Isaac,” She said, the back of her heel slamming against the lockers, the jolt running up her Achilles tendon. “What-”

_Something wasn’t right._

He leaned down, an arm resting against the locker beside her, and his mouth was suddenly on hers. One of her hands moved to press against his chest, as if to keep him at bay. Her skin was crawling. _Why was she kissing him back_?

He tasted like spearmint gum as his lips moved against hers, pulling her bottom lip between his and letting his teeth scrape against it just slightly. His free hand brushed the side of her neck before his fingers slid partially into her hair and stopped there. She wanted to reach out, dig her own fingers into his curls, pull him closer… She felt her heels stretch up slightly as she inched onto her toes- _No_.

Her hand pushed against him and their lips separated, she leaned back onto her feet again. She regretted it immediately.

“You left before I could do that at formal.” He said, looking down at her. He was already changed and ready for practice. She was barely so.

“Really?” She asked, almost disbelievingly. Her voice sounded quieter than she meant it to be.

He met her eyes for a moment. “Yeah.” She had nothing to say. The amount of words in her vocabulary seemed to only consist of a few unintelligible syllables and a couple snarky phrases that she didn’t think he’d appreciate. “I’ll take my wallet now if you don’t mind.”

She stared at him a beat longer than what probably would have constituted as _normal_ before it occurred to her what he was saying. “Right,” She said, turning her head to look in her locker and grab the wallet, where she’d rested it in the front corner. She was overly aware of how close his face still was to her own. Her heart was thrumming murderously.

_Something was not right._

He flashed her a blinding smile and snatched the wallet away from her before retracting himself from her personal bubble and striding out of the locker room.

She leaned back against the lockers, dropping her head back against the metal a bit more forcefully than she should have. Spots dotted her vision. She was ashamed of how long it had taken her, but _unbelievably,_ she hadn’t realized right away. She had never expected to deal with this sort of situation, the thought of Lahey, and that particular smell…

Isaac Lahey was a werewolf.

Immediately after that revelation, however, she had another.

Scott knew.

She grabbed her lacrosse stick and slammed the locker door shut. She needed to have a serious talk with that boy.

She jogged out to the field as the team was finishing up putting on padding and gloves, and Coach was briefing them on their first practice activity. She found Scott and Stiles and forced herself into a small seat on Scott’s other side. She shot him a pointed look, through his goalie helmet as she pulled her own on. He returned it for a moment before his expression changed slightly and a crease appeared between his brows. He inhaled deeply.

He could _smell_ Isaac on her. This was _wonderful_.

She watched his eyes flick across the bench to where she assumed the aforementioned newly-turned _werewolf_ was. “You-” He began under his breath.

“ _Don’t_ say it.” She hissed. “You owe me answers, McCall.”

“ _You_ owe _me_.” He shot back just as quietly.

“ _This isn’t the same_.”

“ _Shhht_!” Stiles leaned over to silence them before Coach Finstock could make an attempt at humiliating them for talking while he was talking. She shot a venomous look at him across Scott’s lap, although she almost appreciated him shutting Scott up. His expression communicated a challenge that landed somewhere along the lines of ‘are you gonna _do_ something about it?’

“Do you know who it is?” Scott asked her, even quieter than before. None of their teammates would have heard it.

“Who _what_ is?” She whispered.

“The _other_ one.” He prompted.

He _didn’t_ know about Isaac, she realized. But he knew someone on the team had been turned. She looked at him in surprise and opened her mouth to respond, just in time for Coach to blow his whistle and the team to dart out on the field. Stiles seized Scott and hauled him onto the field before Nat could say anything.

She got into line with the rest of the forwards and midfielders, but she was near the back. There were three people between her and Stiles, and Lahey was directly in front of him. It very quickly became clear to her that Scott’s plan was literally just to tackle every single person to try to catch their scent to figure it out. Coach was quickly growing annoyed with Scott’s seeming idiocy, and by the third person in line, Natalie wanted to dart across the field and scream it at him.

Jackson walked away from his spot in line for whatever godforsaken reason, and that left Isaac at the front of the line. She leaned over from her spot.

“ _Stiles_!” She snapped.

Stiles looked back at her just as Isaac caught the ball and was about to run. “ _I know_!” He hissed back, then turned to stare forward as the two werewolves impacted. As they recovered from the high-speed collision, Natalie caught movement from the corner of her eye.

Sheriff Stilinski, and two deputies. They walked over to Coach, who then collected Lahey and brought him away from the team to question him.

Natalie and Stiles broke out of their spots, which then dissipated the entire line altogether. They met Scott as he brushed grass from his knees.

“What are they saying?” Stiles asked, pulling his arm up so he was forced to stand straight. The three of them bent their heads together.

“His father’s dead.” Scott whispered. “I think he was murdered.”

“Are they saying he’s a suspect?” Stiles prompted.

“I’m not sure, why?”

“Because they can lock him in a holding cell for twenty-four hours.”

“Like, overnight?”

“On a full moon.”

“How good are these hold cells at holding people?”

“ _People_ , good.” Stiles answered, then looked at them. “ _Werewolves_ , probably _not that good_.”

“Stiles, remember when I said I don’t have the urge to maim and kill?”

“Yeah,”

“He does.”

“We have to get him out.” Natalie whispered.


	22. Chapter 22

“ _So you know this Lahey kid fairly well-_ ”

Natalie wanted to smack herself in the face, but she knew Chris would be able to hear it from the other end of the line.

“ _And I’m sure you’ve found out about his father already, since you’re very good at figuring things out and not saying anything-_ “

“Chris-” She started.

“ _You need to tell me what you know, Natalie_.” He finished.

She sighed, scratching at the logo on her joggers and glaring at the lockers across from her. Once she’d seen her phone ringing and who it was, she’d locked the door to the locker room and settled in for what she could only guess was going to be an ass-chewing or an interrogation. Or both.

“I don’t really know him _that_ well.” She said, as truthfully as possible. “I mean, I helped him with Chemistry a couple times and we went to formal, but… I don’t know, he seemed pretty normal. Nice, kinda quiet.”

She heard Chris exhale heavily into the phone. “ _You’re not feeding me crap because this is like Allison and Scott all over again, are you_?”

“I swear to God, I am not.” She answered, but the words felt rancid on her tongue. No, it wasn’t Allison and Scott over again, but she _was_ feeding him crap. It didn’t feel right, but she also wasn’t willing to take any chances.

She ducked out of the locker room in time to catch sight of Scott walking down the hall. She didn’t know what his plan was, but the quick strides he was making and the hurried way he was shoving things into his locker once he had it open told her that he had something in mind.

“I’m coming with you-” She said as she stopped a couple feet away.

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” He prompted. “I mean with your uncle and Gerard-”

“I wasn’t asking.” She interjected.

He shrugged, finishing putting his books in his locker before holding his hand out to take the notebook and history text she was holding and toss it in as well. “Okay, then let’s go.”

They headed to the side door, where the police interceptor they’d loaded Isaac into was parked, but as they stepped outside, they could see the car driving out of the lot.

“Well,” She sighed, then crossed her arms as Scott turned to head back into the school.

The sound of screeching tires drew their attention to the curb, where a black Camaro had just pulled up. The window rolled down to let them see Derek Hale in the driver’s seat, wearing his leather jacket and Ray-Bans.

“Get in.” He said.

“Are you serious?” Scott demanded, taking a couple steps towards the car. “You did that.” He said, pointing after the car that had driven away with Isaac, “That’s your fault!”

Derek paused for a moment, “I know that.” He said, “Now get in the car and help me.”

“No, I’ve got a better idea.” Scott said, “I’m gonna call a lawyer. Because a lawyer might actually have a chance at getting him out before the moon goes up.”

“Not when they do a real search of the house.” Derek argued.

Natalie started slowly down the steps. She hated that she had a feeling she already knew what Derek was talking about.

“What do you mean?” Scott asked.

“Whatever Jackson said to the cops, what’s in the house is worse. A lot worse.”

Scott hesitated at the door for a little too long, and Derek reached over to pop the door open.

“Fine, but Natalie is coming with.” He said.

Derek just made a nonchalant gesture with his hand and Natalie jogged down the sidewalk to slide into the backseat.

“So why is she here?” Derek asked after they’d pulled out of the parking lot.

“I’m helping.” She returned.

Scott turned around in the seat to look at her. “Are you and Isaac-” He began to inquire. His tone told her what he was going to ask before she even needed to hear it.

“ _No_ ,” She answered quickly. “No, especially not since…” She trailed off.

“Then why did you smell like him at practice?” Scott prompted shamelessly. Derek’s eyebrows arched as he looked at her in the rearview mirror. It was hard to really tell with the sunglasses, but she knew.

“Because we’re both stupid, apparently.” She said, flopping back against the seat. “Either way, it’s not important-”

“I think it’s important-” Derek began sharply.

“I don’t _care_ what you think.” She interrupted, just as venomously, “What’s your plan?”

“First, Scott needs to know what we’re dealing with.”

* * *

“I don’t feel like this is our business.” Natalie said, looking up the stairs at Derek. She had her suspicions of what he was here to show them. She’d seen the bruises. She’d noticed the way that Isaac tried to keep her from interacting with his father. The almost callus way he had regarded her the time she had. If it were what she was afraid it was, she wanted Isaac to tell her. It wasn’t her prerogative to find the truth on her own.

“It is if you want to help him.” Derek started down the steps.

“He should tell us when-” But the look the older man gave her when he reached the bottom of the stairs silenced her.

Scott slowly moved over to a large chest freezer that was a few yards away. Derek walked over as well, producing a flashlight when Scott reached for the lock that was on the front of the freezer. Natalie reluctantly walked over to them as well.

“Open it.” Derek said when Scott paused.

Scott slowly lifted the lock away and raised the lid, showing that the inside was completely covered with scratch marks, some bloody, some deep. All horrifyingly narrative of what had happened.

Natalie merely covered her mouth and turned away, taking a couple strides away from them. This wasn’t her place. She felt like she was prying into Isaac’s mind without his consent.

“This is why he said yes to you.” Scott told Derek after they’d closed the freezer.

“Everyone wants power.” Derek remarked.

“If we help him, then you have to stop. You can’t just go around turning people into werewolves.”

“I can if they’re willing.”

“Did you tell Isaac about the Argents, about being hunted?”

“Yes, and he still asked.”

“Then he’s an idiot!”

“And you’re the idiot dating Argent’s daughter.” Scott stared at him in shock. “Yeah, I know your little secret. And- do you know how long it’s gonna take them to find out? You saw what happens to an omega. With me, you learn how to use all of your senses, with me you learn control, even on a full moon.”

“If I’m with you, I lose her.”

“You’re gonna lose her anyway. You know that.” Derek turned to walk away.

“Wait, I’m not part of your pack. But I want him out. He’s my responsibility too.”

“Why? Because he’s one of us?”

“Because he’s innocent.”

“We have that under control, thanks.” Natalie snapped, turning back towards them.

“And Isaac is apparently also the idiot dating Argent’s _niece_.”

“Far from it, Hale.” She snapped. Her phone began to vibrate in her pocket and she pulled it out, Allison’s name was lit across her screen. She lifted it to her ear and turned slightly away from the boys, who started listlessly arguing about something or another.

“ _Dad and Gerard are planning-_ ”

“I know.” Natalie said. “They also think Isaac killed his dad.”

There was a moment of quiet on the other end of the phone. “ _Do you think he did_?”

Natalie opened her mouth to respond, then stopped to think for a moment about her response. She remembered his black eye in chemistry, the split lip, the way he’d darted out the door to meet her on the sidewalk when she picked him up for formal, how he’d looked back at the house as if he half-expected someone to follow him out and drag him back in. The freezer a few feet away felt like a living, breathing monster. “I think he had a really horrible time at home. I don’t think he would have, but if he turned…” She trailed off.

“ _Would you break him out of jail if you thought he did_?” Allison reiterated.

Natalie breathed in slowly. Her eyes flicked at Scott, who looked back at her. “No. No, I wouldn’t.”

“ _Be careful_.” Allison told her. “ _I’ll tell you if I hear anything else_.”

“Thanks Alli. I’m going to head to the station with Derek.” The man in question started to protest, but she merely plugged the ear that wasn’t pressed to the phone with her free hand. “You should come here and help Scott.” The boy pulled out his own phone and checked the time. The full moon would be up in less than an hour. All of them, even the therian, could feel the energy of it.

“ _Call Stiles when you get a chance. See you later._ ”

“See you.” She hung up and slid the phone back in her pocket.

Scott looked away pointedly.

“ _What_ , McCall?” She demanded.

“I didn’t say anything.” He responded.

“Your face said something-”

“You’re not coming to the station with me.” Derek told her sharply.

“Try and stop me, Hale.” She snapped back. “Isaac is my _friend_ , and while this might be your mess to clean up, I’m sure as hell not letting you do it unsupervised.”

“Don’t think for a second I wouldn’t kick your fucking ass, Deponte-”

“Don’t think I wouldn’t shoot you in the leg, Hale.”

In the end, he didn’t stop her when she dropped into the passenger seat of the Camaro. Scott stayed in the basement to wait for Allison, not overly excited by the prospecting of leaving even the meager protection of the building when the full moon was so close.

Natalie found it hard to consciously chose her words rather than lashing out at Derek as soon as she had the opportunity. But once she started considering the best way to approach the conversation, she couldn’t seem to force herself to speak.

“Spill it before you give yourself a stroke.” He told her sharply a few minutes into the drive to the station.

“Why-” The question scrambled from her throat and crawled out of her lips, “Why Lahey?”

“You and I both saw-” He began to explain, but she didn’t want to hear the excuses about Isaac’s dad.

“You didn’t _know_ that when you asked him. There’s no way-” She snapped.

“Are you trying to say that _you_ didn’t already know?” He returned.

She shifted in the seat, hooking the toe of her sneaker under the trim beneath the dash, and gritting her teeth hard enough that she swore she could hear her jaw creak. “He’s my _friend-_ ”

“And I’m not oblivious.” He countered.

“What the fuck does _that_ mean?”

He exhaled sharply, clearly annoyed. “Exactly _how_ important do you think _you_ _are_?”

She wanted to object, to ask him the stereotypical ‘ _excuse me_ ’ that threatened to bubble to the surface, but she felt the air linger in her lungs. He was right. She was so caught up in thinking that somehow it was _her_ fault that she assumed that Derek had turned Isaac Lahey purely because of her. Because she had allowed herself to get even incrementally close to him.

She pursed her lips and kept her mouth shut the rest of the drive.


	23. Chapter 23

They met Stiles just down the street from the Sheriff’s station and piled into the Jeep, with Natalie in back.

“So how are we getting the cell unlocked again?” Natalie asked as they rolled to a stop at the curb. Inside, they could see the night officer sorting files with a cup of coffee in hand.

“The keys to every cell are in a password-protected lock box in my father’s office.” Stiles explained. “The problem is getting past the front desk.”

“ _Distract her_.” Derek said as if it were the most obvious statement in the world. He moved to open the door.

“Whoa, whoa!” Stiles reached over and grabbed his arm to keep him from getting out. “You?” Derek looked pointedly at the hand holding his sleeve, then back at Stiles, and back again. “You’re not going in there.” Stiles then seemed to notice the look he was getting. “I’m taking my hand off.” He said in the same tone as before and snatched his hand away.

“I was exonerated.” Derek told him sharply.

“You’re still a person of interest.” Stiles argued.

“Innocent person.” Derek pressed.

“An-” Stiles said in incredulity. “ _You_? _Yeah! Right_.” Sarcasm dripped off his words as they hung in the air.

“I can go, they don’t know me like-” Nat offered.

“You’re the murdering witch’s niece. You think _that’s_ not suspicious?” Derek told her. She pursed her lips.

“Okay, fine.” Stiles said, looking back at the man in the passenger seat. “What’s your plan?”

Derek looked at him for a moment. “ _To distract her_.” He said slowly, with emphasis.

“Yeah?” Stiles prompted, “How? By punching her in the face?” His lip curled slightly and he made a quiet noise of deprecation.

Derek gave a soft laugh that did not at all suggest that he found it funny. “By _talking_ to her.” He said with the same slow, demeaning tone.

“Okay, alright.” Stiles said, “Give me a sample. What are you gonna open with?” Derek looked forward as if he were thinking, then looked back at Stiles. “Dead silence? That should work beautifully. Any other ideas?”

“Hit on her.” Natalie suggested. The boys looked back at her. “What? Derek’s-” She withered under their gaze and the realization of what she was about to say. “You know what? I’m not gonna finish that.”

“Ooookay,” Stiles said, turning back forward. Derek looked at her for another moment with arched brows. “Now that we know Nat thinks you’re hot,”

“I didn’t-” They ignored her and proceeded on.

“I’m thinking about punching _you_ in the face,” Derek said to Stiles.

Derek entered the station first and started off with a dazzling smile and soon he and the night officer were having a playful banter that was so adorable that Natalie wanted to vomit as her and Stiles snuck past the desk and down the hall.

“I’ll find his cell.” She whispered.

“I’ll meet you with the keys.” He returned and he pointed her in the direction she needed to go before they split off. She strode through the halls. The lights were spaced an odd distance apart, but were unusually bright. That combined with the narrowness of the corridor itself made her skin crawl. She wasn’t sure if she could actually smell blood, or if she was imagining it.

Suddenly, the fire alarms started shrieking. A string of curses left her mouth and she started sprinting. She reached the room containing the holding cells seconds before Stiles, who was in the captivity of a man dressed in a deputy’s uniform. A man she knew very well was not actually a deputy, but actually one of the men who had arrived with Gerard. He had blood running from what looked like an arrow wound in his thigh, and was wielding a syringe. He dropped Stiles on the floor before turning to look at the row of cells.

They all realized something wasn’t right almost immediately, one of the cell’s doors had been ripped clear of its hinges. She could _smell_ a werewolf. Her hair stood on end. She caught sight of movement from the corner of her eye just before she saw Isaac launch directly into the fake deputy, seize him by the shoulders and slam him into a desk.

Natalie curled her hands into the back of Stiles’ shirt and pulled him back against the wall, crouching beside him for a moment. From Isaac’s scent, and the way he moved, she assumed he was fully under the pull of the moon without needing to see his face. He would not be able to rationalize between who was bad, and who was good. He could just as easily turn on Stiles as he could on the hunter. First she needed to make sure he didn’t get to Stiles, then she needed to neutralize the threat he posed. With Derek’s help, she could probably knock him out.

She stood up as Isaac slammed the hunter’s head back against the wall, letting his limp form crumple to the ground. God, she hoped he was only unconscious. If Isaac had killed him-

Natalie strode forward a couple steps, towards where Isaac was standing, but at the same time Derek appeared in the doorway, letting the syringe crunch beneath his boot. At the sound, Isaac turned to look at him, then his eyes trailed to where Stiles was on the floor behind the desk, with his back against the wall. The werewolf took a menacing step towards Stiles. Natalie’s body tensed in anticipation, but Derek growled deafeningly at Isaac, who instantly recoiled and curled up against the wall as if in fear.

Natalie let out a shaky breath and tried to loosen her muscles. She dropped her hand, which she realized was gripping the hilt of her handgun where it was concealed at her hip. “ _Fuck_.” She breathed, looking back at Stiles, who glanced from Derek to the cowering werewolf as he got to his feet.

Isaac slowly turned his head to look back at them, a boy once again. He looked terrified, sweat covering his face.

“How did you do that?” Stiles asked, sounding about as shaken as she was.

Derek looked over his shoulder. “I’m the Alpha.”

Natalie and Stiles ended up checking to make sure the hunter wasn’t dead – which, he wasn’t, thank the Lord – while Derek got Isaac out of the police station. The two of them were already long gone before Stiles and Nat had made it back to the Jeep, and she felt both annoyed and anxious.

She wanted to talk to Isaac, or interrogate him, rather. He had _agreed_ to the bite. He, while misinformed, or otherwise _under_ informed, had _chosen_ this, and she wanted to know why. And she wanted to know why he hadn’t said anything to her about it. Maybe they weren’t _great_ friends, but they were friends, right? Or perhaps because of the fact that he was basically the first person she considered her _own_ friend, she was reading this wrong.

…Or not. He’d _kissed_ her earlier that day. _Just_ friends didn’t do that, at least as far as she knew.

She leaned back in the passenger seat of the Jeep, arms crossed, as Stiles took a few haphazard turns to get them away from the Sheriff’s station.

“Well, that was fun.” He remarked. She cast a tired glance at him. “Thanks for… you know, not letting me get mauled.”

“Stiles-” She began.

“Sorry your boyfriend’s a monster now-”

“Christ, Stiles-” She said, “He’s not my boyfriend.”

He shrugged. “Friend who’s a boy.”

She just sighed. She was too exhausted to argue with him right now.

“Regardless, this kind of sucks.” He reasoned, “Now Derek’s _really_ broken your rules, huh?”

Yes, he had. Which, he had broken the rules a long time ago. Whenever his eyes had turned blue, _that’s_ when he’d broken the rules, and that constituted a death sentence. He was considered too dangerous to leave unchecked. And as far as the code considered, _dangerous_ was better off _dead_.

“Yeah.” She answered. “But the worst part is Gerard.” She mumbled.

“Your grandpa?” Stiles prompted.

“ _Allison’s_ grandpa.” Natalie corrected, “He was Kate’s dad, and Kate takes after Gerard more than Chris does.”

“So…” Stiles began, the look on his face telling her that he knew exactly where she was going with this.

“None of them are safe.” She finished. “Not even Scott.”


	24. Chapter 24

“I don’t know how you did it.” Allison said as she burst into Natalie’s room, absolutely _pissed_.

Nat whipped around in her chair, nearly fell out of it, to be honest. “ _What_?”

“Dad started _‘training’_ ,” She made finger quotations, her lips curled in irritation, “With me tonight by abducting me and giving me a spiel about what a bite from a werewolf means to us, and how the women are the leaders and-”

“Allison-” Natalie tried to interject.

“I. Get. That it’s important-” She continued, “But _oh my God_! What _bullshit_!”

Nat sat in her desk chair, stupefied, as Allison paced across her room.

“And you said that Grandma D was _worse_?” Alli plowed on, “I can’t _believe-_ ”

“Holy _shit_ , Allison-”

The girl in question only then seemed to realize that her outburst was _completely_ unexpected, and Natalie needed a second to catch up. “Sorry, I’m just, I-”

“No, no.” Natalie began, “I get it, but you said he _kidnapped_ you?”

“ _Yes!_ ” Allison answered, “From the gas station!”

They both just exchanged a look for a second. “I mean, I got tied up and locked in trunks and stuff, but I never got _kidnapped_.”

Allison dropped onto the bed. “I guess I have to get to your level fast, right?”

“That’s not-” Natalie started, then hesitated. Allison wasn’t _wrong_ , per se, but she also didn’t think that this was necessarily the best way to go about it.

The two girls sat quietly for a moment, absorbing the conversation.

“I’ve got something worse, too.” Allison prompted.

Nat just looked up and met her cousin’s eyes.

“Dad said they’d kill Isaac on the next full moon.” She finished. Natalie’s face gave nothing away. “I know he’s your friend. I just… thought you should know.”

This was bad. _Very_ bad. If _Chris_ had resolved to executing Isaac Lahey, she knew there was no hope of convincing the Argent clan otherwise. Chris was always the careful, pragmatic one. Even bordering on tolerant at times. Really, the only thing Nat could do now was try to make sure Lahey didn’t get himself killed before they could find some sort of proof that he was innocent. And even then… her expectations of Chris reassessing his standpoint was not great.

* * *

Natalie should have just stayed in geometry with Allison. Why the hell did she decide that she should do _precalc_ her sophomore year of high school? Sure, she liked math. Sure, she was good at it… usually. But holy hell.

Not to mention how freaking _boring_ it was. At least she had Lydia to suffer with in class. But at home when she was working on problem sets… ugh.

She’d done the same problem three times at this point, and gotten different answers every time. What she really wanted to do was close the textbook and go to sleep. This homework wasn’t even due for two more days anyway… but she doubted her ability to stay awake if she wasn’t working on something.

There was a noise from the window behind her and she felt the hair stand on the back of her neck.

She turned in her desk chair just in time to see a hand slip under the slightly open window and force it up.

“Hey,” She said, the word feeling pathetic as it crossed her lips and she looked at Isaac, who just looked back at her for a second, leaning forward with his hands on the windowsill. He was still wearing that stupid leather jacket that reminded her too much of Derek.

“You wanted to talk?” He asked.

She exhaled deeply through her nose, “Get inside before someone sees you.” She told him.

He arched his brows and gave a sort of half-shrug before doing as she asked, sliding the window mostly shut behind himself.

 _God_ , she didn’t know how to handle this conversation. Or where to start it. With the ‘what the actual shit were you thinking’, or the ‘my uncle wants to murder you’. It also didn’t help that she had to force herself not to think about how his mouth felt on hers when he spoke. So instead of saying anything, she sighed and ran her hands over her face.

“So you’re having that good of a week, huh?” He prompted, crossing his arms and looking at her.

“Don’t even start with me-” She began. “Do you have _any_ idea-”

“I know the Argents-”

“The _Argents_ are also _me_.” She snapped, “And if the rest of them find you, they will kill you. At least my uncle will only shoot you. Gerard would probably hang you by the wrists and cut you in half.”

He leaned back until his shoulders touched the wall. “And I’m in a house with them both. Are you going to tell them?”

She felt her jaw tense. “No.” Now that she thought about it, she was honestly surprised he even came. He probably should have assumed it was a trap and stayed far away.

“Well, if it’s so important to you, then why not?”

“Because I thought we were _friends_.”

He eyed her for a second, then looked at the floor, taking in a breath. “And I thought so too, so why did you want to talk to me?”

“Because I wanted to warn you that they’re looking for you-”

“And I’m a fugitive of the law, so I think I can-”

“You don’t understand.” She snapped, “They’ve been doing this longer than either of us, or Derek have been alive. They are prepared to _kill_ you, Isaac.”

He looked up at her for a second.

She met his gaze, hesitant. “And I want to know why you told Derek yes.”

His eyes slowly drifted back to the floor. “He said he took you to the house.”

“We don’t need to talk about it-”

“You _asked_ why-”

“And so you thought the answer was to become a _monster_?”

They were quiet for a breath. Two.

“That’s all I am?”

“ _Fuck_ , Lahey-” She gritted her teeth, “If we were _friends_ , why couldn’t you at least-”

“Why didn’t you _do_ something, then?” He countered before she could finish her thought.

She stared at him for a moment, and he met her eyes. She wanted to shrink into the carpet at her feet. “Because I didn’t _know_. I didn’t want to misread things or-” Each word out of her mouth sounded more and more like bullshit. Excuses. And she knew that she’d fucked up. If she were _really_ his friend, she would have at least asked him. Instead she’d assumed that he’d tell her if he wanted her to know. But she hadn’t really considered that that wasn’t exactly how things worked.

“I would’ve helped you.” She said finally, rather than continuing to justify her shit behavior. Because it was true. If he’d asked, she’d have helped. Without question.

“To do what?”

“Anything.” Her eyes flicked at the wall, then settled on the floor. She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “Within reason, of course, but I _want_ to help you-” At least, she _did_. She wasn’t sure what she would be able to do to help him now. “I just can’t believe you went to _Derek-_ ”

“Look, I know it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but I really don’t see what’s _so bad_ about-”

“Yeah?” She interrupted him sharply, wanting _so badly_ to chew his ass over the comment. Let him know _exactly_ how stupid she thought this decision was. But she knew she was too angry to reason with him. She spun around in her chair and closed her math book, stacking her notebook on top and shoving it to the edge of the desk. “I’m not going to get into it. It’s almost two in the morning and I – unlike you – still have school tomorrow, so you should definitely go.” She stood up and grabbed her backpack from the floor to drop it into her now-empty seat.

“Look, I’m not sorry about saying yes to Derek.”

She gripped the back of the chair and gritted her teeth. She wished he’d just _leave_ already. Maybe it had been a bad idea to try to talk to him. She was only getting more worked up, and the last thing she wanted was to have to explain why her eyes changed color. They hadn’t yet, but she was fighting it.

“But I am sorry about being on opposite sides.”

She let the air leave her lungs slowly, letting the remark sink in so that she could cool herself off enough to turn around. She met his eyes and stuck her hands into her sweatpants pockets. “Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to awhisperofsilk for the comment, once more. Your enthusiasm has gotten me so much more excited about Natalie's story, so here's a little more of Nat/Isaac for you!


	25. Chapter 25

She felt her exhaustion the next day just a bit more than her usual brand of tired. She could only hope that the concealer she’d borrowed from Allison covered the bags under her eyes enough that Lydia wouldn’t notice. She didn’t particularly care whether the rest of the student populace thought about her sleep habits, but she really didn’t need Lydia questioning her. She didn’t think she had the energy to fabricate valid excuses.

She thought she was actually going to make it through the day without any hiccups until she nearly ran into Lydia in the hall after third period, and immediately Natalie knew something was off. But Lydia merely tried to brush it off and pretend she was going to be late for class.

“Hey,” She grabbed the girl’s wrist and pulled her back, if the smell of her tears hadn’t been so obvious, the pink tinge and the wateriness of her eyes would have been. “What’s wrong?”

“What are you talking-”

“Are people still giving you shit about the fugue state, because I-” Natalie began, her shoulders falling back.

“No, that’s-” Lydia started to disagree, “Nothing’s _wrong-_ ”

“Lydia,” Nat said, her voice dropping to a whisper, “You’ve been _crying_.”

Lydia pursed her lips, considered her response for a moment, “Jackson’s just being an _asshole_.” She said definitively.

Natalie deflated slightly, “Well, damn.” She mumbled. “I mean, I can kick his ass if you want-”

“No! _No_ ,” Lydia broke in. “I just, need to- I need something to distract me.”

Nat looked at her for a second, running through possibilities in her mind. “Frappe?” She finally asked.

Lydia pressed her lips together again, then nodded.

“Okay, frappes for lunch.” Nat said, then hooked on arm through Lydia’s as she pulled out her phone to text Allison the plan.

* * *

“So, are we going to address the issue at school?” Lydia said, stabbing her straw into her skinny soy mocha frappe with intent. “The one with bad lip liner and a miniskirt?”

Natalie smothered the sigh that lingered in her lungs and leaned back in the metal patio chair. She promptly stuck her straw in her mouth as an excuse not a speak.

“Erica?” Allison prompted.

Lydia just hummed and looked between the two of them pointedly. “Don’t get me wrong, the confidence is inspiring, but I have suspicions-” She squinted her eyes, “Not to mention the holier-than-thou attitude being unbelievably annoying…”

Allison just shrugged and looked down, taking a drink of her own whipped-cream topped beverage.

“She’s got new friends.” Nat finally chipped in. “She thinks she’s hot shit because she’s hanging out with an older guy. It’s really not a big deal.”

Lydia turned a scrutinizing look on her, “And how do you know this?” But the question was really how she knew it, but Lydia didn’t. Because Lydia always seemed to know everything, before everyone else did. She knew what strings to pull to get the information she wanted.

Nat realized too late that even her vague reasoning was too much. Now, she couldn’t deflect without Lydia knowing that she was. Her best bet would be to give her a couple hints at the truth and hope that it was enough to satisfy her.

“It’s Derek Hale.” She said reluctantly.

Lydia continued to eye Nat for a moment. She fully expected the strawberry blonde to ask who’d told her, but instead, Lydia went a different direction. “Is anyone else concerned with the number of high schoolers this man hangs around with? Because I feel like it’s borderline pedophilic-”

“No, you’re right.” Allison said, “It’s weird.”

“Can we talk about something else?” Natalie remarked.

“Okay,” Lydia said, “Like Isaac Lahey and how he’s missing? And a suspect in his father’s murder?” Lydia said, clearly annoyed that Natalie wanted to change the subject, and wanting to make her yet more uncomfortable to convey it.

“No, preferably not that, either.” Nat muttered.

“You know,” Allison said, standing up suddenly, the legs of her chair scraping across the concrete. “We’ve only got fifteen minutes left for lunch hour, so we should probably head back to school-”

Nat was more grateful for her cousin in that moment than she wanted to admit. The three of them took their frappuccino’s and headed over to where Nat’s silver four-door was parked at the curb.

She hoped the rest of the day would be quiet enough that she could try to process some of the week’s events, but she should have known better.

In economics, she discovered from Scott and Stiles that the next person Derek intended to turn was Boyd. And Scott was planning on stopping at the ice rink where Boyd worked as soon as they got out of class to talk to him, and hopefully convince him not to do it.

She knew Scott didn’t expect to have her tag along, but since she could get him there faster in her car than he could get there on his bike, he’d conceded. However, he’d asked her to wait outside so he could talk to Boyd alone. The fifteen minutes she was parked in the loading zone were spent glancing impatiently down at the clock on the dash.

Suddenly, the doors to the rink opened up and she looked over, fully expecting it to be Scott, much to her surprise and dismay, however, it was Derek, Erica, Boyd, and Isaac.

She swore under her breath and jammed the stop engine button, seizing her keys. She should’ve spotted the Camaro well before then, and the fact that Derek was there with his newfound lackeys – she didn’t doubt for a second that Scott was probably shoved in a trashcan somewhere, or otherwise incapacitated. Neither of them would stand down without having the shit kicked out of them.

Isaac hesitated at the door of the Camaro as she got out of her car. She barely met his eyes before striding up to the rink doors, her car locking behind her.

Sure enough, after she’d wound her way down the halls and onto the ice, she smelt blood. Scott was on the far side of the rink, lying on his back.

“I’ll be fine.” He called to her as she skidded over to him.

“ _Let me talk to him alone_ , he said,” She remarked, mockingly, sliding to a halt and crouching next him. “You’re a dumbass.”

Scott looked at her, a bump on his forehead already appearing to be shrinking. “I take that back, actually,” He said, “I’m dying. You better apologize.”

She rolled her eyes, “You good to stand?” She asked.

He pushed himself up into a half-sitting position, wincing. He pulled up the hem of his shirt. A trio of scratches cut across his abdomen. They were angry and red, but not actively bleeding, despite the blood drying on his skin. “Yeah.” He said.

She stood back up and grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet. “Next time I come with and just hide behind the bleachers or something, okay?” She said. “I think my gun might scare them more than your manicure.”

He pressed a hand against his stomach and looked at her. “Do you always carry that thing?”

“Only when you bring me on sketchy adventures.”

“Whatever.” He said as they started across the ice.

“Allison told me you were a natural born skater.” She teased, grinning at him.

“Please don’t.” He said, glancing at her.

She stifled her smile, “Sorry. Just thought it was funny.” She said.

“Can you drop me off at the vet’s on the north side?” He asked. She held the door open for him as they left the rink. “I work there, and I think I should get some antiseptic-”

She nodded slightly, “Probably not a bad idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;) Brace yourselves.


	26. Chapter 26

Her eyes blinked open against her wishes and she stretched out slightly with her covers twisted about her. She wasn’t sure why her body had decided to wake her, but she wasn’t particularly happy about it. She heard a muffled sound from near the window and felt adrenaline shoot through her veins. Her hand shot to her bedside table and snatched up the handgun laying there, before she pointed it at the window with both hands.

“ _Lahey._ ” She hissed. Isaac Lahey froze where he was partially through the open window and stared at her with wide eyes. She lowered the pistol.

“Why do you have that _by your bed_?” He asked, still not having moved.

“ _Because of idiots like you, apparently_.” She snapped under her breath, “ _What are you doing_?”

“I needed to ask you something-”

“So you decided it would be a good idea for you, a _werewolf_ , to break into the bedroom of the niece of a _heavily armed werewolf hunter?_ ” She set the gun back on the table and looked at him. He stumbled into the room and slid the window shut.

“I didn’t think you’d pull a gun on me.” He reasoned.

“And what about my uncle Chris?” She inquired. “Did you think he wouldn’t pull a gun on you if he saw you climbing through my window?”

He straightened his jacket and looked upwards for a moment, “I guess I didn’t think that far-”

“It’s two thirty in the freaking morning, Lahey.” She cut across him. “What do you want?”

“Well, a car for starters, it was a pain in the ass to bike-”

“ _Lahey_.” She interrupted him, “I fucking swear-”

“I have an aunt in Seattle.” He said, “If I ever stop being a fugitive, she’s my next of kin.”

She was _not_ awake enough for this shit. She forced herself to sit up straight in bed, her covers bunched up in her lap. She’d almost forgotten about the issue of Isaac’s new legal guardian. He was only seventeen, and as such needed to belong to someone. “Seattle.” She repeated. “Would you want to go?”

He looked back out the window and didn’t say anything right away. “No. I can’t just leave Erica, Boyd, and-” He started to say. “I want to petition for emancipation, you know, when I’m not-”

“On the lam?” She finished for him. He said nothing in silent agreement. She stared at him for a second, and slowly he looked back at her. “Do you want my help?” She asked.

“That’s not why I’m telling you-”

“But I’m offering.” She interrupted him.

He still didn’t look at her, contemplating for a second. It seemed a lot like he wanted help. He wanted someone else to carry the burden with him, but he didn’t want to ask it of her. “Yeah.”

She eyed him for a moment. He was still staring out the window. “What else?” She prompted. “You didn’t come here in the middle of the night and crawl through my window to not-ask-for-help with-”

“I’m not really getting along with Derek.” He explained suddenly. She looked at him expectantly for a moment, but he seemed to have little interest in finishing his statement, he turned to meet her eyes. “And I don’t like being at the house.” He said instead.

They were both quiet for a moment. She knew he was trying to ask if he could stay without asking. He knew she’d figured it out.

“I’ll sleep on the floor, you won’t even know I’m here-”

She should say no. Not just because Chris and Vic would _actually_ kill him if they found him there, but also because she was already too attached. Too attached to the kids at school, too attached to the people she’d been raised to revile, too attached to the whole stinking town. Her relationships to the people here were clouding her judgement and driving her away from what she’d been working towards her whole life. She knew them before the turn, and now she knew that there were people behind the claws. Behind the monthly shift. People she knew. People she cared about. Good people.

“You aren’t sleeping on the floor.” She said. He nodded once, looked down, and his body began to shift towards the window. “It’s a big enough bed. I’m sure we can share without invading each other’s space.”

His eyes snapped back up at her, “You don’t have to-” Suddenly, she could hear his heartbeat, pounding just hard enough to reach her minutely heightened hearing.

“I know I don’t _have_ to.” She interrupted him. “Don’t worry about it.”

She laid back down and rolled in the bed so that she was facing the window, as close to the edge of the bed as she could get. She checked the time on her phone one last time before leaving it face-down on the bedside table, next to the loaded handgun. She heard Isaac slide the windowpane down and kick his boots off at the window before heading around to the edge of the bed, where he paused before pulling back the covers.

“You’re sure you’re okay-”

“ _Christ_ , Lahey.” She interrupted him sharply before looking back at him. He’d shed his jacket and was wearing a tee shirt beneath, leaving the bruises up his left arm plain for her to see. Her stomach rolled. Unless it happened in the last half hour, it shouldn’t look like that. Or unless it was caused by an Alpha.

“Just checking.” He defended, shoving the blankets back enough that he could climb in.

But she just stared at him for a moment too long. She’d already made the mistake of _not saying something_ once. “Are you sure everything’s okay?” She asked.

“What do you mean?” He sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at her.

She nodded at his arm, “What’s up with your arm?”

He followed her gaze to the bruises, then looked across the room at the corkboard above her desk with an exhale. “Derek needs to teach us to defend ourselves faster than initially expected-”

“Look, I’ve been subjected to some pretty questionable training techniques, so I really can’t say shit, but-” She met his eyes, “Did you sign up for that?”

“It doesn’t matter. We have to do everything we can to avoid getting caught by the Argents-”

“I think sleeping in their house is probably not the best-”

He tipped his head and cast her a grating look.

“Just saying.” She shrugged, and rolled over in the bed, turning her back to him.

She felt him settle onto the other side of the bed, getting comfortable. She tried to ignore the way her senses picked up on the presence of another person in her bed, and the unwarranted nerves that crept over her for it. The weight distribution on the bed’s surface, attempting slightly to pull her back towards the middle. Being able to hear his breathing, his heartbeat, the rustle of the sheets as he moved his foot two inches to the right-

“Thanks for letting me crash here, Nat.” He said.

“Just don’t make a habit of it,” She returned.

It felt like it took forever for her to fall asleep, but when she did it seemed like it was sleep deep enough to drown her. All of the nonsense with the Argent clan, and dealing with Scott’s mess, then subsequently Derek’s, and all the wildness that ensued, she probably could have slept for a couple days straight to make up for the hours she’d lost since school had begun that semester, and the stress of it.

Her radio alarm ripped her rudely out of unconsciousness.

She slammed her hand down on the snooze button, glaring blearily at the light streaming through the window. She could have sworn she’d closed the curtains before she went to bed. She hardly ever forgot.

The sound of someone else’s breathing, and the shift of the mattress as they rolled slightly, nearing her. Her heart nearly jumped from her chest in the millisecond it took to remember who was sleeping in her bed.

She looked over past her pillow to see Isaac still completely deaf to the world, his mouth slightly open, and his hand only a couple inches from her face. She pushed herself up onto her elbow and looked down at him.

“Isaac,” She said under her breath, lightly shoving his shoulder, with absolutely no response. “ _Isaac_.” She hissed, shoving hard enough this time that the bed shook slightly.

His mouth snapped shut and his eyes cracked open, settling on her as if she’d cost him some dire personal offence, but once he seemed to recognize who he was looking at his eyes widened.

“Isserman-” He began to say. She shushed him quiet. The sounds of morning life were drifting beneath the door to her bedroom. The Keurig humming from the kitchen with its near-death gurgle, the morning news mumbling from somewhere on the lower floor, the water running in the bathroom that Nat and Allison shared.

“If Allison sees you in here, she’ll kill me.” She whispered sharply. “If Chris sees you, he’ll kill both of us.”

He’d pushed himself up into a seated – but heavily slouched – position. “ _Fuck_ , why am I- ?” His mumble trailed off, eyes taking in the surroundings of her bedroom.

“ _Seriously_ , Lahey,” She said, climbing onto her knees, “You need to go!”

“Okay, okay,” He mumbled, rubbing his eyes, “Just let me wake up.”

She climbed out of the bed, and didn’t have time to feel self-conscious about the fact that she was only wearing the oversized shirt and spandex that she’d initially gone to bed in, since she was too busy worrying about whether this would be one of the mornings Allison barged into her room without warning to ask about her outfit or whether Nat wanted Vic to make her one piece of toast or two.

She snatched his jacket off her desk chair and tossed it to him as he finally got to his feet.

“And if anyone sees you, I will deny any knowledge-” She began.

“ _Sure_ ,” He said, sticking his arms through the jacket and heading towards the window, where his shoes were waiting. “By the way,” He started to say, “If you lose semifinals tonight, I’ll be a little disappointed.”

“Why?” She prompted, “You can’t even play.”

“Not yet.” He cast her the start of a smirk and ducked out of her bedroom window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks once again for the kudos, namely from Angelhearth. I'm also glad you liked the line about Scott from the previous chapter, awhisperofsilk!
> 
> And finally, to answer your question BadWolf1989, at this point, Allison is the only one in their family that doesn't know that Natalie isn't human, since the existence of supernatural creatures had been kept from her for so long.


	27. Chapter 27

She stood in the huddle as Coach Finstock read through the starters for their game. They were nearing the end of the season, and now every point needed to count towards getting them through to finals. Natalie spun her stick in her hand, nerves skittering through her veins as she listened to the list. She hadn’t thought she was still capable of getting so wound up about lacrosse, but she’d clearly been wrong.

Coach finished the list and she realized that her name hadn’t been called. “Coach!” She objected as her teammates broke off to take their positions – or their seats for those less fortunate. She pushed through the moving bodies to reach him. “Coach, I-”

“I’m not arguing with you about this, Isserman-” He began, turning away from her and stalking towards the bench.

“I’m _first line,_ why would-” She interrupted him, jogging to catch up and get ahead of him so that she could walk backwards and face him. That way he couldn’t ignore her.

“Isserman. Have you _seen_ the size of these guys?” He hissed and gestured down the sidelines at where the other team was.

“ _Exactly_!” She said, planting herself directly in front of him when he stopped walking. “I’m smaller, and faster than any of them have been in ten years!” She pleaded sharply. “You need me _out there_.”

He held up a hand to keep her from continuing, “I will _think_ about it, Isserman. Now, sit down!”

She gritted her teeth, but decided that it was better than nothing, and irritably dropped onto the bench between Stiles and an underclassman, who eyed her warily.

The game started, and within minutes they were already down two goals. Natalie dug her fingernails into her knees.

“I will lose my shit if I don’t get put on that field before halftime.” She muttered.

“You actually _want_ to be out there?” Stiles demanded under his breath.

“ _Gerard_ is here.” She returned quietly. “We’re losing, and Scott can’t take on He-man without tipping him off that something’s up. But Gerard already knows about me, so I could get away with a little indiscretion.”

“You think nobody’s gonna find it a little weird if you – a girl at least half a foot shorter than that monstrosity – goes out there and plows over that kid.” He gestured at Eddie Obomowitz, the tank of a high schooler standing in the other team’s defense.

“I just gotta be faster than him.” She said.

“And then pull your typical move of ‘brake failure’?” He prompted, looking at her, unsold. Of course he was talking about her habit of checking despite it being a penalty.

“Maybe not.” She mumbled.

Stiles glanced somewhere over her shoulder, and she followed his gaze to Allison, who quickly glanced away.

Natalie had almost forgotten about their plan to get the bestiary from Gerard. Somehow, the semi-final match had overshadowed it. Allison had to get the keys, hand them off to Stiles, who would check the principal’s office for the small leatherbound book Allison had seen him with.

“Keys,” He said.

She nodded as he got up. “Good luck.”

After he’d gone, another two of their players got tossed by the other team’s resident, including Danny, who clearly had a concussion of some sort. Finally, Coach Finstock let her on the field, but much to her dismay, they were still one man short, and Coach chose Boyd from the stands.

Somehow, once Boyd had thrown Obomowitz onto his ass and given him the concussion of the century, they’d managed to win the semifinal. The stress of the game was soon to be out-done for Natalie, however.

* * *

She anxiously met Allison’s eyes across the table. The entire situation was about as dreadfully comical as it could have been. Gerard had no idea of Scott’s condition, of course, so when he’d invited the latter over for dinner following their lacrosse game, he couldn’t imagine the dismay the other five-sixths of the table was wallowing in. They were already several silent minutes into dinner when Gerard finally spoke up.

“Alright,” he said, shifting the napkin in his lap. “Why is everyone so quiet? Is it that uncomfortable that they dated?”

“Did you ask them if they’d be uncomfortable?” Chris offered.

“Okay, it may have been centuries since I was a teenager, but even back then we dated and broke up all the time.” Gerard continued.

“We’re fine.” Allison remarked. “Right Scott?”

“Totally fine.” Scott replied, but Natalie couldn’t miss the assessing gaze Chris shifted between the two of them as they said it.

“Just tired from the game, I’d bet.” Natalie offered.

There was a slight pause before- “Then why did you break up?” Gerard pressed.

“She… dumped me.” Scott said, though it sounded much more like a question than an answer. Now everyone was looking between Scott and Allison, mostly at the latter, waiting for a response. Nat wanted to slink under the table before things got out of hand.

“No offense, Scott,” Chris began. “But I think maybe Allison felt the two of you were just growing apart.”

“Uncle Chris, I think Allison is capable of forming her own opinions,” Natalie interjected, earning a glare from the grown man on her left.

“As if the father’s opinion isn’t biased,” Gerard added, “How do you know they weren’t as passionate as Romeo and Juliet?”

“Because it was his little girl.” Nat suggested, sticking a green bean in her mouth. Allison was trying to suppress a grin.

“Romeo and Juliet committed ritual suicide.” Chris argued. Aunt Victoria loudly dropped her fork onto her plate and stared at her husband. “Could use a little less passion.”

“Can we please talk about something else?” Allison said sweetly, though her tone was venomous beneath the surface.

“Brilliant idea.” Aunt Vic breathed.

“Scott.” Chris said suddenly. “How about you help me grab desert from the kitchen.” He stared at the boy as he pushed his chair back and stood, heading out of the room. Scott followed.

Natalie met Allison’s eyes again. She heard a thudding sound, like someone had been pushed against a wall, and angry whispers. Moments later, they stepped back into the room as if nothing had happened, and placed two plates on the table.

They all ate quietly for a couple more minutes.

“Do you mind if we are excused? There’s actually some notes form English I need to go over with Scott.” Allison stated.

Gerard nodded to her.

“I’m not so sure it’s appropriate.” Chris disagreed.

“Okay, I’m the one who’s supposed to be old-fashioned here.” Gerard joked.

“I’ll go with them.” Natalie said.

“Go,” Gerard said.

The three of them stood up and headed up the stairs.

“We have to check the room.” Allison hissed to her, “Bestiary.”

“I’ll keep watch.” Natalie whispered back as they slipped into Gerard’s room. Natalie waited, just out of sight at the top of the stairs. She heard some muffled shuffling from the bedroom, then a loud phone ringtone. She tipped her head back irritably. _Jesus, Scott_ …

Moments later, they walked out of the room.

“Have it?” Nat asked.

“No,” Scott replied.

“We know where it is.” Allison told her, and they descended back down the stairs.

When they made it back to the table, Scott made up some bogus excuse about having to pick his mom up from work, and left in a rush.

“I don’t get it.” Gerard commented. “What’s not to like?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love to the guests who left kudos, as well as BadWolf1989, of course. :)
> 
> Also, if anyone is interested in the Spotify playlist I started with my inspiration music, it can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0e2xagSD221KMThomoRecz
> 
> I'd love to hear what you think!


	28. Chapter 28

“ _Lahey_.” She breathed, nearly tripping over her own feet as they threated to freeze to the floor and she forced them to keep moving.

She could only see the back of his head, but she certainly didn’t know anyone else in school who was that tall, with that particular shade of dark blond curls. And even past the few people between them, she could smell the werewolf on him.

He apparently heard her, and glanced over his shoulder, a troublemaker’s grin breaking across his face as he slowed down to walk beside her. “Isserman, nice to see you too.”

“Who did you seduce into letting you off the most wanted list?” She prompted.

“Not enough people, it seems.” He returned, meeting the gaze of a passing student who dared to look too long. “I’m still getting stares.”

“Maybe it’s the leather jacket.” She suggested. “You’ve got a John Travolta in _Grease_ vibe going.”

“I thought you’d be more of Harrison Ford in _Indiana Jones_ kind of girl.” He remarked.

“More like Tom Cruise in _Top Gun_.” She disagreed, stopping at his locker with him. He looked at her for a moment as if considering whether her statement matched her person before nodding slightly and dropping his backpack into the locker. “Glad you’re back, Lahey.” She said, turning to walk away.

“Good to be back.” He returned, watching her stride down the hallway. The way her hair rested on her shoulders reminded him of how it had felt when it had been between his fingers. He’d never had the nerve to kiss her before the turn, though he had thought about more than once, especially at the winter formal. He’d thought that maybe if she’d hesitated just enough, or if she leaned towards him before they got in her car to leave- But he knew himself better than that now. If they were _ever_ going to kiss prior to his becoming a werewolf, _she_ would have had to do it. And he got the distinct feeling she was trying _not_ to get involved with him.

And being high on the first day as a werewolf, and the proximity of the full moon, he’d thought it was a good idea to march into the girls locker room – though he _did_ at least know that she would be the only person in there – and push her back against the lockers.

What shocked him far more than his own behavior, though, was that she’d _kissed him back_. With almost no hesitation.

This lead him to the revelation that Natalie Isserman at the very least had a crush on him, and he wanted nothing more than to make the most of it.

“Don’t get any ideas, Isaac.” Erica interrupted his thoughts by propping herself up against the locker next to his, where Natalie had been moments before. She twirled a piece of hair in her fingertips and looked at him teasingly. “She’s off-limits.”

“Would that stop you?” He prompted.

She grinned. “No,” Isaac looked away to pull his chemistry book from his locker. “But you’re a better person than me.”

* * *

Stiles had texted her to fill her in on the situation. The fact that he’d been corralled into the school pool for _way too long_ during the game with _Derek_ , of all people. And as if that weren’t dramatic enough, apparently Erica and Isaac had gotten ahold of Jackson the night before and tested the Kanima venom on him… a test in which he’d _passed_. Their next suspect was then _Lydia_. Which did something _awful_ to Natalie’s mood.

In order to avoid having to talk to anyone in the hall, she’d booked it to chemistry and taken one of the spots on the far side of the room before anyone else had gotten there. She needed a moment to collect herself for the shit show that was sure to ensue, being that they all were in this particular class together. She kept her head down and focused on the outline of the day’s lab, only glancing up a couple times before the bell rang.

Once the lab began, she saw Allison quickly take the seat beside Lydia, and Scott reluctantly sat beside Erica. Then she felt someone sit beside her and looked over to see Isaac, sitting too close, in his leather jacket still. His arm brushed hers as he rested his other elbow on the table and grinned at her like he had a wish to be locked back up in the county jail.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Lahey.” She said warningly under her breath.

“Like protecting a killer?” He suggested softly.

“If anyone is opposed to protecting a killer, it’s me.” She returned, grabbing the first solution they were supposed to be using in their deposition.

“Yet here we are.” He said, pulling away the beaker just as she was about to pour into it.

“ _Isaac_.” She hissed.

“I’m trying to do what I think is right.” He said, looking in her eyes. She glared back at him. “Surely you can understand that.” He added, sliding the beaker back.

“Not if it means hurting innocent people.” She said, measuring out the twenty milliliters.

“Well if she fails the test, she’s not innocent, is she?” He prompted. “If she passes, you all have nothing to worry about.”

“There are things about supernatural creatures that you _do not understand_ , Isaac.” She ground out quietly.

The bell dinged, signifying that they needed to switch partners.

He leaned closer to her before she could stand up. He was close enough that she could see the ring of grey inside the blue of his iris. “People can’t keep dying, Natalie.” He whispered sharply. “At least I’m doing something about it.”

She gritted her teeth as he shoved away from her table and walked off. The most infuriating thing about what he told her was that it sounded like something she would have said before she got mixed up in this mess. Something a hunter would say.

Danny settled into the seat beside her and they exchanged polite smiles. She watched Isaac drop into the spot next to Lydia, at the table in front of them. Something about the smirk he cast at the strawberry blonde made her even more irritated at him.

“You want to finish the deposition, Natalie?” Danny asked.

She looked at the beaker in front of them. She was holding the dropper they were supposed to use next. She slid the bottle away and poised the dropper over their beaker.

“Lahey, huh?” Danny prompted as she squeezed out the contents of the dropper.

“What about Lahey?” She countered under her breath. The way he said it made his meaning evident, but she was not about give anything away that easily, especially since she was currently _pissed_ at the person in question.

“Ah-” Danny backpedaled slightly. “He’s been acting different since he got back, huh?”

“Yeah,” Natalie muttered, “ _Different_ is one way to put it.” She saw Isaac’s head turn slightly to the side as if he’d heard her.

“You suppose he’ll still play the game this weekend?” Danny asked, taking a stirrer and whirling it through the solution as it started to coagulate.

“Maybe.” She replied, “How should I know?” Danny shrugged, clearly starting to regret bringing it up. Natalie would regret being so sharp with him later, but she was still too irritable to really care. Her eyes flicked back up at Lydia and Isaac.

The buzzer went off once more and Mister Harris called the class to attention, telling them that the crystal that they’d catalyzed was edible. Isaac held the clear, pointy-edged mass up towards Lydia. Natalie could see a shiny coat on it, as if it were covered by a viscous liquid.

 _Kanima venom_.

“Lydia!” Scott shoved his chair back and shot to his feet. The entire class froze and looked at him.

“What?” She demanded.

He hesitated for a moment, then pulled his chair back. “Nothing.” He said, sitting back down.

It had had no effect. Lydia had failed the test.

And so Natalie, Allison, Scott, and Stiles had met in Coach Finstock’s empty office during an off-hour to cover their next steps. Thanks to Isaac and Erica being Derek’s inside links, they were fairly limited.

“Derek’s outside waiting for Lydia.” Scott remarked.

“Waiting to kill her?” Allison prompted.

“If he thinks she’s the Kanima, then yes.” Natalie remarked.

“Especially after what happened at the pool.” Scott added.

“It’s not her.” Stiles pressed.

“Stiles, she didn’t pass the test man,” Scott argued, “Nothing happened.”

“It can’t be her.” Stiles murmured.

“There are some species that are immune-” Natalie began.

“It doesn’t matter, because Derek thinks it’s her.” Allison interjected softly, her eyes burning into the ceiling before she looked at them. “So either we can convince him that he’s wrong, or we’ve gotta figure out a way to protect her.”

“There’s no convincing Derek.” Natalie muttered.

“Well I really don’t think he’s gonna do anything here,” Scott said, shaking his head slightly, “Not at school.”

“What about after school?” Allison hissed. Scott exhaled loudly and looked away. Natalie gritted her teeth. “What if we can prove that Derek’s wrong?”

“Yeah, by three o’clock?” Stiles prompted.

“There could be something in the bestiary.” Allison commented. Natalie shrugged, not disagreeingly.

“Oh, you mean the nine-hundred page book written in archaic latin that none of us can read?” Stiles snapped. “Good luck with that.”

“I can read some of it.” Natalie said, her voice sharp. She didn’t appreciate his tone targeted at her cousin. “If I can at least get through the table of contents-”

“I can… talk to Derek, maybe convince him to give us a chance to prove that it’s not her.” Scott suggested. “But if anything happens, you guys let me handle it, okay?”

“What does that mean?” Allison demanded.

“It means you can’t heal like I do,” Scott said, “I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Fat chance, McCall.” Nat mumbled as Allison turned and shuffled through her bag, pulling out a crossbow and lifting it above her shoulder.

“I can protect myself.” She told him severely.

Stiles gestured loosely at her, as if she was evidence in and of herself.

“What?” Allison asked when Scott didn’t say anything for a couple beats. “Did something else happen?”

“I just don’t want you getting hurt.” He said softly. “Seriously, if anything goes wrong, you call me, okay?” He said, taking a step closer to Allison, “Because I don’t care if your dad finds out. Call, text, scream, yell, whatever, I’ll hear you and I’ll find you as fast as I can.” Allison nodded slightly. “We have until three.”

Natalie looked over at Stiles, who had Allison’s crossbow and was looking it over, turning it around, running his fingers over the grip. Scott turned to leave the office, just as Stile’s finger pressed on the release. The werewolf turned around quickly and snatched something out of the air – a short arrow. He looked at it for a moment, then back up at Stiles who immediately looked abashed and tried to hand the contraption to Allison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the gratitude in the world for the guests that left kudos here in the last couple days, and of course sparklinglavender, namely. And a well-deserved shout-out to awhisperofsilk for the dedication! I also see that one of you have liked the playlist I shared, which I am so excited about!
> 
> I'm on vacation the next week, so I have no idea if I'll have free time. I hope this chapter is enough in case I don't!


	29. Chapter 29

Scott had gone to the lacrosse field to talk to Derek, Allison had gone to Miss Morrell to try to work out the details of the translation that Natalie hadn’t been able to figure out, then to team up with Stiles and Jackson and get Lydia away from the school. Nat was left wandering the campus trying to find Isaac or Erica and keep tabs on them.

She finally caught their scent and followed it into the library. She traveled to the back, past the first row of shelves, a small study area, where Danny cast her a faint smile, and to a second study area beyond the next set of shelves. Someone seized her arm as she stepped through and pushed her back against the end of the bookshelf she had just passed.

“Didn’t figure you to be the type that likes it rough, Lahey.” Natalie said under her breath, looking up at his blue eyes. One hand held her arm back against the wood, not _too_ forcefully, his other hand rested flat next to her head as he leaned towards her.

“Where is she, Isserman?” He hissed. His breath smelled like spearmint. It reminded her too much of what he’d tasted like. She quickly backpedaled, looking away before she could make the mistake of letting her eyes drift where they wanted to.

“I haven’t a clue who-” She started to say back snarkily, but he just dipped that much closer to her, his nails turning to claws in her upper arm, enough to dig into her pressure points, but not to rip through her sleeve.

“ _Deponte_.” He whispered sharply.

She stared at him. She’d only heard Derek use the name before, only because he knew her family. He knew Victoria Argent’s maiden name. Clearly, he’d let it slip around Isaac, because there was no other reason for him to know. It shouldn’t’ve had that much of an effect on her, but the more someone knew about her lineage, the more they could deduce of the intimate details. And she wanted desperately to avoid that. “I can’t tell you, Isaac.” She murmured. “You know that.”

“She’s a waste of time.” Erica’s voice drifted between the inch or two that separated their faces. “They’re clearly not here anymore.”

“Not a waste of time.” He responded. “Leverage.” Erica hummed approvingly from where she was perched on a table a couple feet away, just as her phone started ringing.

Isaac’s hand slid down her arm to her wrist and clenched there, a tight grip she knew she couldn’t pull out of. Even if she were full therian, a werewolf would still have superior physical strength. Her extensive combat training could only do so much. She didn’t think Isaac would willingly hurt her, but she didn’t know what Derek had told him, especially if he knew her mother’s last name… and she didn’t trust Erica as far as she could throw her.

After they dragged her out to the parking lot, where Derek was waiting, as per what he’d said in the call he’d made to Erica. Isaac shoved her into the backseat before sliding in beside her, Erica dropping languidly into the shotgun spot.

“They’re at McCall’s house.” Derek said. “No thanks to either of you.” Nat assumed that meant Boyd had followed one of her friends to Scott’s.

“Not for lack of trying.” Isaac muttered, glancing at Natalie, who sat beside him with her arms crossed, seething. He draped an arm over her shoulders, half-threatening, half to keep her from making any sudden moves. Not that there was much space for moving in the backseat of the Camaro. “Right, Deponte?”

“Don’t call me that.” She snapped.

“That’s your name, isn’t it, _Sweetheart_?” He asked.

“Not to you, it’s not.” She hissed. She’d thought about it before, how his body heat would sink into her, her side leaned against his, their thighs pressed against each other from hip to knee. She just never considered that it might be while she was held captive. Her eyes flashed bright silver.

Derek looked back in the rearview mirror at the glow. “Back off, Isaac.” He said. They were three turns from Scott’s house.

She turned her head to look out Erica’s window as Isaac twisted his head to look at her. She was grateful for Derek not mentioning anything about what she was in that moment, and for him not letting Isaac keep digging under her skin. There was only so much she could let roll off her shoulders before it started seeping in, and if she shifted while they were all in the car, should would probably end up inadvertently killing them all and herself. Her shift was just too uncontrollable and volatile.

She didn't like the way Isaac was now analyzing her, however. Especially when she was glued to his side, his smell strong due to proximity, and the sound of his heartbeat just as loud as the eight-cylinder under the hood.

They pulled to a stop on the other side of the street, across from Scott's house. They looked at the seemingly lifeless building, but Stiles’ Jeep parked out front gave the hiding teenagers away. Not to mention that Boyd was already there, his bike abandoned near the sidewalk.

“How many are there in there?” Derek asked, looking over his shoulder at her. She didn't say anything. “I want to know so that we don't need to hurt anyone else.” He added, “We just want Lydia.”

“It’s not Lydia,” She snapped.

“ _Deponte_.” He returned seriously.

“At least four.” She said under her breath.

“It’s fine when _he_ says it.” Isaac protested.

“ _He_ has a reason,” She snapped, shoving his arm off.

“Oh, _he_ does?” Isaac hissed as Derek and Erica both shoved their doors open and climbed out of the Camaro. Natalie scooted over to follow Erica out the passenger side. “A reason better than it being your _last name_?”

She cast him a withering glance, gritted her teeth and pushed the door open a bit farther in order to climb out. The reason it bothered her so much that Lahey had taken up the use of her mother’s last name seemed to boil from how much she hated hearing it. It screamed her duality at her for the two last names, the conflict in the words _hunter_ and _therian_ and how they shouldn’t be placed beside each other.

 _Isaac_ was supposed to be her friend. _Derek_ used it like a threat. And she had a feeling he knew more about her parents than she would have liked.

As soon as she stepped out of the Camaro, Erica cast her a predatory grin and threaded an arm around hers, leading her over to stand next to Derek and Boyd at the side of the street – an obvious and intimidating presence.

“Girls got to stick together, right Nat?” Erica said.

“Check her for weapons.” Derek ordered, eyeing the house.

“Gladly.” Erica responded with a saccharine smile, running a tight-gripped hand down Natalie’s arm.

“And let me know if she does anything unusual.” Derek added before looking over his shoulder at Isaac. “I want you to circle to the back. Don’t let them see you. Take out their defenses first, then go for the Kanima.”

Isaac nodded tersely, meeting Nat’s glare briefly as he brushed past her and Erica to head around the house. Erica pulled a short, but glitteringly sharp knife from where it was strapped to Natalie’s arm beneath her jacket.

“My, that shouldn’t have been on school grounds,” Erica remarked, sliding a hand around the girl’s waist in search of a firearm. “No gun today?”

“I left it in my car.” Natalie said through her teeth.

Erica hummed, “What a shame.”

Natalie tried to yank out of her hands, but failed. Allison was in that house. She needed to be there. It physically hurt that she couldn’t run to the door.

“Erica, you follow him.” Derek said, still looking at the house standing before them.

“Whatever you say, _boss_.” She said, shoving Natalie at him as she stalked off to move around the McCall home as well.

Natalie’s shoulder rammed into Derek’s arm and he glanced down at her irritably. “Don’t glare at _me_.” She hissed.

They both looked back, analyzing the windows, waiting for a sign of movement. Natalie could feel her muscles steeling as she watched. What were the chances she could make it to the curb before Derek or Boyd could grab her?

But then the door swung open, and the occupants tossed out an unconscious Isaac, and a paralyzed Erica into the grass in front of the stairs.

Nat broke away from Derek and Boyd, glancing over her shoulder to see if they attempted to follow, which they didn’t. She quickly ascended the steps and moved next to Allison, who grinned at her, and handed her knife back. Nat grinned back in response.

She looked out at Derek again, who stood with his arms crossed, clearly annoyed.

Derek was saying something about Scott not being able to beat him, but Natalie could hear the movement of something above them. The shingles being disturbed. Scott said something back about the police coming. The noise grew closer.

Nat grabbed Allison’s arm. Scott and Stiles also seemed to hear it then and they all rushed off the deck and onto the lawn to look up at the roof, where the Kanima was perched. It made a low, angry sound at them – something that could have come from a horror movie, bonechilling – and took off.

“Get them out of here.” Derek told Boyd under his breath.

“Who else was in the house?” Natalie asked quietly.

Scott looked at her, his arm wrapped tightly around Allison, his body between hers and the Kanima. As much as she was bothered by the fact that her cousin was dating a werewolf, she did have to admit that Scott always put Allison’s safety first, and she admired that. “Lydia,”

“And Jackson.” Allison added.

“And why have we counted Jackson out of the running for the Kanima?” Nat demanded.

“He passed the test, apparently-” Stiles started to say.

“ _Not good enough_.” Nat hissed.

At that exact moment, Lydia marched out the front door. “Would someone please tell me what _the hell_ is going on?”

“It’s Jackson.” Scott breathed, not loud enough for anyone but her and Allison to hear.

Natalie ended up in the car with Allison to drop Lydia off at her house, sitting in the back seat as Allison tried to appeal to Lydia, and Lydia merely tried to figure out what was happening. Eventually, Lydia pushed her way out of the car and Allison stared after, dejected.

Natalie exhaled slowly, looking out the window at the strawberry blond. She looked back at her cousin. “I’m gonna talk to her.” She said.

“Be my guest,” Allison said, rubbing her forehead, “I’m obviously not getting through to her.”

Natalie offered a conciliatory smile and slid out of the backseat. Lydia was walking down the sidewalk to her front door, scrolling through something on her phone. Natalie jogged over to catch up.

“I do _not_ want to talk to _you_ , either.” Lydia hissed, not looking up.

“What’s happening is that Derek is trying to figure out who’s the cause of all of the murders lately.” Natalie said.

Lydia stopped on the first step up to the door and turned to look at Natalie, who stood only a couple inches shorter, thanks to Lydia’s heels and the height from the step. “What does that have to do with _us_?”

“It’s a long story,” Natalie said, Lydia moved to turn away. “I _promise_ we’ll tell you, it’s just… right now, knowing more could put you in danger. That’s why Allison doesn’t want you to say anything. That, and her parents will _actually_ kill Scott if they know he’s been around her.”

Lydia crossed her arms. “Okay. I still don’t like this, but-” She said tersely. Her eyes flicked back at the car where Allison was waiting. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She said, turning on her heel and disappearing into her house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all are the reason I keep posting this, I hope you know. And this time I particularly want to thank Bookworm_375 for kudos! 
> 
> Really though, everyone, this is encouraging me to fill the blanks on something I've been working on for years, and I appreciate it! I'm just so happy that I can share it with others who enjoy it!


	30. Chapter 30

“For the record, Lahey.” She hissed at him as she could smell him approach, “Yesterday was the mother of all dick moves.”

“I was just trying-” He started to argue, propping himself against the locker beside hers as she twisted in her combination, seething.

“Well, your _trying_ almost killed my friend,” She snapped, yanking open her locker door and dropping off her French book to instead grab her Physics text. “So I-”

“We thought she was _killing people_.” He returned under his breath, his tone sharp.

“You thought _wrong_.” She said, slamming her locker shut, a bit more forcefully than necessary, but not hard enough to knock her magnetic pencil cup off the back of it. She turned a glare on him. “You almost killed an innocent person, which doesn’t make _you_ much better than the Kanima.”

“I’m a little bit emotionally involved in this, so I’m sorry I want to see something done.” He returned her glare venomously.

She deflated a little bit, then leaned her shoulder against her locker, her eyes softening slightly. “Look, I know you have reasons, and I can’t blame you for that. I just wish you’d _think_ about things a little more before going on a murderous rampage. Or, I don’t know, _listen_ to me?”

“ _Murderous rampage_?” He repeated, “Really?”

She shrugged and brushed by him. He followed at her side. “Don’t you have a class to get to, Lahey?”

“Geometry can wait.” He reasoned. She cast him a sidelong glance with raised brows. “No… you’re right.” He sounded annoyed.

“Wait,” She said before he could turn away, stopping just in front of the door to her classroom. “I have something for you.” She opened the multi-subject notebook she used for classes and pulled out a stapled stack of papers and held it out to him. “I might have been pissed at you, but I said I’d help, so here.”

He looked at her face for a second, then flipped through the first few pages. It had been all the information that she could find online about emancipation processes in California, with the items she thought to be most useful highlighted.

“See you later, Lahey.” She said before he could speak, even to utter a thanks, and slipped through the door into her Physics class.

* * *

“Mom threatened to kill Scott again.” Allison said under her breath as she shoved in her History book and grabbed her hat and gloves. Natalie exhaled sharply and glanced down the hall over her shoulder. “She knows.” Allison said dejectedly, standing up. “And if she doesn’t, Gerard _definitely_ does.”

“They don’t know.” Nat assured her.

“Do you really think they’d talk to you about it?” Allison prompted, elbowing her locker shut. “They know how close we are.”

“They’d have a hell of a time talking about it without me finding out.” Nat said.

“Whatever,” Allison rolled her eyes as they started on their way out of the school. “Did you call Stiles?”

“On it.” Nat said, pulling out her phone from her sweatshirt pocket and hitting the speed dial. She wasn’t sure if she was moving up in the world for actually using all of her speed dials now, or down because of who they were.

“Hey, yeah,” She said into the mouthpiece once he picked up. “We’re on our way.”

_“Thank God,”_ Stiles said on the other end. _“I’m going insane out here with this kid.”_ Nat heard muffled shouting in the background, followed by Stiles shouting something back that she couldn’t quite hear since he must have covered the phone with his hand, or held it against his shirt or something. Once he was back on the phone, he gave her a quick run-down of where he’d parked on the preserve.

“Be there soon.” She said, trying not to roll her eyes as she hung up and they opened the doors to Allison’s car.

But as Allison turned the key in the Toyota, her phone buzzed with a text. She pulled it from her pocket and her eyes flashed over the message. “You’re _freaking_ kidding me.” She turned the phone around so Nat could read a message from Gerard. Jackson’s parents had gone to the police. They’d reported him missing.

Nat swore, and they got out of the parking lot as quick as they reasonably could.

They parked down a secluded drive before getting out and walking the rest of the way through the preserve to find where Stiles had hidden the police transport van. When they got there, Stiles was busy typing away at Jackson’s phone, and was startled when Allison popped her head around the van.

“They know.” She said.

“What?” Stiles prompted as Natalie stepped up beside her cousin.

“ _They know Jackson’s missing_!” Allison reiterated.

“No, they can’t,” Stiles argued, holding up the phone in question. “I’ve been texting his parents since last night. They don’t have a clue.”

Allison shook her head, “My grandfather told me his parents went to the police. _They know_.” She explained slowly.

Stiles stared at her with his lips parted for a moment. “What did you text them, Stiles?” Nat inquired.

He slowly looked down at the phone, lifting it up and holding it by the corner between his thumb and forefinger. He made a small _ah-_ sound, then flapped his free hand in the air in the beginnings of panic before he handed the phone to Allison and darted over to the van, wrenching open the passenger door and snatching up the radio inside to crank it on.

The police were on their way to the preserve. They’d tracked Jackson’s phone. The three of them met each other’s’ eyes, then piled into the van, Nat in between her cousin and Stiles.

“Where are we going?” Allison asked.

“Far from this,” He keyed in a phone call and tossed Jackson’s phone out the window before they took off.

They parked in the shade of a hill, on the other side of the preserve. Scott arrived soon after and they huddled together to discuss the fact that Danny’s tablet was missing out of the back of his car, which supposedly contained video evidence of Jackson’s shift.

The first suspect was obviously Jackson, but they also considered that it could have been someone else. Someone trying to protect Jackson, as Scott suggested.

“Yeah, like the bestiary says, the Kanima seeks a friend, right?” Allison remarked.

“A friend would protect him.” Natalie agreed.

“Okay, hold on, so-” Stiles began. “Somebody watches Jackson make a video of himself turning into the Kanima and then just erases part of it so he wouldn’t know?” He looked at the three faces before him. “Who would do that?”

“Somebody who _wanted to protect him_.” Allison said.

“There’s something else.” Scott interjected. “You said the only thing you found online about the Kanima is that it goes after murderers. What if that’s actually true?”

“No, it can’t be,” Stiles disagreed, “It tried to kill all of us, remember? I don’t know about you three – especially you –“ He gestured at Natalie, who pressed her lips together, “But I haven’t _murdered_ anybody lately.”

“Well, I don’t think that it was actually trying to kill us.” Scott argued, “Remember when we were at Isaac’s the first time? It just, went right by us, didn’t it?” He looked at the brunette.

Allison nodded, “You’re right, it just ran off.”

“And it didn’t kill you,” Scott said, turning to Stiles, “In the mechanic’s garage.”

“Well yeah, but it tried to kill me and Derek in the pool.” Stiles pointed out.

“Did it?” Scott asked.

“It would’ve,” Stiles insisted, “It was waiting for us to come out.”

“What if it was trying to keep you in?” Scott proposed.

Stiles stared at him for a minute, his mouth hanging slightly open. “Why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?”

“ _Because_ ,” Scott began, “There’s something else going on, and we don’t know what it is. We don’t know anything about what’s going on with Jackson or why someone’s protecting him-”

“Know thy enemy.” Allison mused. She glanced at the boys, who’d paused to look at her. “It’s just- something my grandfather said.”

“Have we tried linking the victims yet?” Natalie offered.

“I mean, I have a little-” Stiles said, “They all went to school here, but that’s not really a lead. Most people have.” They were all quiet for a second. “Alright, I got it. Kill Jackson, problem solved.”

They looked at him, Scott with far more exasperation as he raised his shoulders. “He risked his life for us. Against _Peter_ , remember that?”

“Yes, but what did we just find out?” Stiles countered. “He got the bite from Derek. It’s funny how he got exactly what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us. It’s funny.”

“It doesn’t mean he’s not still worth saving.” Scott returned.

Stiles smile faded. “It’s always something with him, though.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Scott defended.

“So what?”

“So, I didn’t either!”

They argued for a little longer, culminating in Scott insisting that they had to try to save him if they could.

They were out there until after it got dark. Natalie sat in the back of Allison’s car after they’d brought it up and worked on homework until Scott came over from the van to talk to Allison.

“Stiles went to check on Lydia.” He said as he pulled open the passenger door.

Nat closed her book for French and slid to the door in the backseat. “I’ll go sit in the van.” She said. “Hate to leave lizardboy by himself.” She said, flashing a look at Allison in the rearview mirror.

She shut the door behind her and trudged over to the van, hopping in the passenger side. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through it for a few minutes before kicking her feet up on the dash and playing with the archaic stereo that was installed in the transport van. She could hear Jackson’s breathing and heart rate through the metal separating the cab from the cargo area. Her phone buzzed and she looked down.

**_Isaac [9:47 pm]  
_ ** _where r u?_

**_Natalie [9:48 pm]  
_ ** _What do you mean?_

**_Isaac [9:52 pm]  
_ ** _not to be creepy, but i stopped to see u and ur not home_

**_Natalie [9:54 pm]  
_ ** _No, I’m not_

She tossed her phone into the driver’s seat. The last thing she needed was Isaac figuring out where they were. Knowing how he reacted to thinking Lydia was the Kanima, he’d probably march up there and try to murder Jackson without hesitating, and bring Derek and his new buddies with him.

Her phone buzzed again, but she didn’t look at it. Why did she ever give that kid her number, anyway?

She reached for the stereo tuner again, but at the same time the van gave a slight jostle and she heard a low rumble-like noise from the back.

“Jackson?” She called. There was no answer, but she could hear that his heartrate had jumped, and his breathing was loud and fast. There was another jostle, and a slightly louder noise this time. She climbed onto her knees on the seat and pounded twice on the divider that separated her from the prisoner transport. “Jackson!”

The only response was a metallic sound that made her snatch the keys from the dash and jump out of the van, just in time to see the Kanima’s form take off through the trees. She ran to the back of the van, which was ripped wide open and grabbed her hair.

“No, no, no, _no, no!_ ” She said, then slammed a fist into the side of the van. It rocked slightly, a small dent left in the wake of her soon-to-be-bruised knuckles.

At that exact moment, headlights broke over the hill, which would have frightened her if it wasn’t obviously the Jeep. Stiles jumped out of it without even bothering to turn it off and ran over to where she was, his eyes taking in the mangled rear of the van in disbelief.

“You have great timing,” She told him, angrier with herself for not realizing what was happening sooner, than she ever could be with Stiles.

“Holy shit,” He said, “Scott was supposed to be watching him.” He met her eyes.

“He’s ah-” She began, looking over at Allison’s car.

“With Allison?” Stiles finished for her in irritation and started striding over to the car.

She followed closely, “He got out so fast, I doubt Scott would have been able to stop him any more than me-” Growing increasingly annoyed with herself as she started to defend the guy who was sleeping in the backseat with her cousin, both of them nearly half-naked.

“ _You_ could have at least tried.” Stiles said under his breath, halting next to the rear window. “You know, with your special shapeshifter powers that none of us have ever seen.” She stared at him for a moment, lips parted. “Yeah, Scott told me.”

“ _Don’t_ tell Allison.” She hissed.

“I’m not gonna tell Allison.” He assured her sharply, pounding the side of his fist against the glass. The pair inside woke up. “You guys might want to come take a look at this.” He said.

Allison and Scott quickly pulled their shirts back on and joined Stiles and Natalie at the back of the van. Nobody said anything right away, too shaken and unbelieving at the situation they were in.

“I have to tell my father.” Allison said in reluctant determination. Scott took a couple steps away. “Scott,” She pressed, “He’s going to kill someone.”

“I’d personally tell Derek before I tell Chris.” Nat offered. The other three looked at her in surprise. “They both will want to kill Jackson, but at least we wouldn’t have Allison’s parents on us about it.”

“And do _you_ have Derek’s number?” Stiles prompted, “Because _I_ don’t.”

“No,” Natalie said, “But I have Isaac’s.” Allison and Stiles both gave her a look, Scott was still facing away from them, seeming to be on the verge of an existential crisis. “We went to _formal_ together. Don’t _look_ at me like that.”

“Okay, tell him.” Scott said quietly. “Tell him everything.”

“Scott, I gotta tell my dad too.” Stiles added gently.

“This is all my fault.” Scott said under his breath.

“It’s not.” Allison assured him. “But we have to tell them. We’re just a bunch of teenagers. We can’t handle this.”

“You’re right.” Scott said.

“How are you gonna make your dad believe all this?” Allison said, looking from the doors ripped from the van over to Stiles.

“I don’t know.” Stiles breathed.

Scott turned and looked back at them, his eyes glowing bright yellow. “He’ll believe me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, you all are amazing.


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Solid italics indicate an event that happened in the past!

Allison and Natalie headed back to the Argents’, while Scott and Stiles took the Jeep to the police station. The house was dark when they got there, confirming their assumptions that Vic and Chris were probably out there looking for Jackson already. In fact, they probably had started as soon as school was done. Natalie had texted Isaac saying that she would be home in twenty minutes after they’d gotten off the preserve.

Natalie froze as she was walking past Allison’s room to her own when she heard Allison start talking to someone, who turned out to be Lydia. She hovered at the door as Allison tried to get rid of her, a bit callously, and Lydia said she just wanted to talk to someone. Allison said something about translating archaic Latin, which Lydia just so happened to know, since classical Latin had been too boring for her.

While they got to work on that translation, Nat pushed open the door to her bedroom to find Isaac sprawled on her bed, tossing a lacrosse ball in the air so that it _almost_ touched the ceiling before catching it. He didn’t bother to glance at her as she shut the door.

“I let myself in.” He said, a toe gesturing to the cracked open window.

“I know I’ve said it before, but my uncle _will_ put a bullet in you if he catches you, you know that, right?” She said, kicking off her shoes, “And he has _very_ good aim.”

“I like living on the dangerous side.” He said, catching the ball and not throwing it up again. He looked over at her as she pulled off her beanie and gloves. “So I wanted to talk to you about those papers-” He started to say.

“I have news, first.” She interrupted him, tossing her phone onto her desk and dropping into the chair in front of it. “We know who the Kanima is.” Isaac pushed himself onto his elbows to look at her in surprise.

“Well, who is it?” He asked, a little too quickly.

She eyed him for a moment. “I don’t want you charging out of here to go kill them.” She watched him. A muscle jumped in his jaw, “And after yesterday, I don’t know… how much I can trust you.”

“Natalie-”

The door was thrown open and Allison started striding in, her step faltering when she saw Isaac still laying on the bed.

Natalie refused to let the blood rush to her cheeks as she looked expectantly at her cousin. She wasn’t doing anything with him, hell they weren’t even within three feet of each other. Why was she so embarrassed to have been caught with someone in her room? Especially when Allison knew that she’d texted him.

“I’m calling Scott.” Allison announced, she glanced at Isaac. “Dad’s office.”

Natalie pushed out of the chair to follow, leaning against the doorway before she slipped out. She looked back at Isaac, who stared after her, not having moved. “I know you can listen in if you really want to.” She said, “But I’m asking you, please – don’t.” He looked away, his eyes focusing on her bedspread. “If you want me to trust you, don’t listen in. I’ll tell you when we figure some stuff out about it.” She hesitated for another second, then shut the door and ran down the hall, past Allison’s bedroom, and the spare bedroom, and into the office. The phone was already ringing.

“The Kanima seeks a _master_ ,” Allison said, “Not a friend.”

Natalie looked at her for a moment. “Someone’s _making_ him do these things.” She breathed.

“Did you tell Isaac?” Allison asked.

“No, but he can hear through the walls, so if he wants bad enough to know, he can probably figure it out.” Natalie replied.

“I won’t say the name.” Allison said, just as Natalie heard the line pick up from where the speaker was pressed against Allison’s ear.

* * *

_“So why do we need their help?” Isaac asked, following Derek through the ruined subway train with his hands in his pockets._

_“Because it’s harder to kill than I thought, and I still don’t know who it is.” Derek responded, stepping out onto the cement platform._

_“And they do?” Isaac pressed, glancing back at Erica, who shrugged at him._

_“They might, which is why I need one of you to get on their good side.” Derek finished._

_“Hmm,” Erica hummed, stepping up beside Isaac as Derek stopped walking in front of a large trunk. “Scott or Stiles?”_

_“Either.” Derek answered, glancing at her and stooping towards something on floor in front of him._

_“Actually, I ah-” Isaac began, “I might have that covered.”_

_Derek straightened up and focused a soul-searing look at him. “Deponte?” Isaac didn’t say anything right away. “_ Do not trust her _.” He enunciated sharply. “Remember that she has been raised – her entire life – to get information and to deceive people.”_

_He really didn’t need to be told every time her name was even vaguely mentioned. Derek ducked down to the trunk again._

_“You know the full moon is coming, Derek,” Isaac commented._

_“I’m aware of that.”_

_Isaac chewed the inside of his lip as Derek opened the trunk. He shifted on his feet. “You said you were going to teach us how to change whenever we wanted.” Derek began pulling out yards of thick chain, braces with screws in them, a mélange of torture-looking bonds._

_“There hasn’t been time.” Derek replied simply._

_“But if you have to lock us up on the full moon, that means-” Isaac started to protest, “That means you’re alone against the Argents.”_

_“They haven’t found us.” Derek remarked, almost sing-song._

_“_ Yet! _” Isaac objected. Erica was staring at him. “So how about we forget the Kanima-”_

_“_ We! Can’t! _” Derek snapped loudly. “There was something about the way Gerard looked at it.” He explained. “He wasn’t afraid. At all. Now I don’t know what he knows, or what he’s planning, but I’m sure about one thing, we_ have _to find it first.”_

* * *

“I half expected you to take off.” She said, pushing the door open again.

“And miss all the fun?” He prompted, still laying sprawled out on her bed.

How was he supposed to get her to talk? He could wait for her to tell him, like he assumed she eventually would, but who knows how long that might take? ... Could he seduce her into telling him?

“I don’t know what _fun_ you’re thinking of.” She said, sliding off a ring and setting it on her desk, followed by earrings that she dropped into a small dish.

Natalie was overall very tomboyish, the queen of athleisure and avoiding fabrics that were anything other than cotton, jersey, or otherwise inherently stretchy. Between her constant cycle of sweats, leggings, joggers, and sneakers, she would occasionally show up at school – on days when there was no lacrosse practice – in clothes that Isaac was fairly certain she borrowed from Allison. Today had been no different than usual, but for those couple pieces of jewelry. He’d noticed.

She’d pulled her red waves into a ponytail at the back of her neck, and she looked very much like she could pass out at any given time. He watched her lean back against the desk, rubbing her temple with a hand.

He pushed himself up to sit. “The county superior court is in Rocksburg, right?” He asked.

She looked at him for a moment, dropping her hand down to the edge of the desk. “Our-” She began to say, “Yeah, I think.”

“Would you ah-” He raised a hand to scratch the bridge of his nose, “Drive there with me sometime?”

“For the emancipation?” She prompted. He nodded. “Yeah,” She said, “I think I can do that.”

He grinned at her by way of saying thanks. She tried and failed to suppress a smile of her own, though she shifted her eyes to the clock on her bedside table. “It’s after midnight, Isaac.” She said.

“About that….” He began. He saw her eyebrows raise and her body recoil slightly. He could almost see the _no_ on her lips already. “Just _once_.” He said before she could answer. “Just this time. Then I'll talk to Derek, I promise.”

She stared at him, at a loss. “I don't want you getting the idea that my bedroom is some sort of halfway house for wayward werewolves.”

“I'm not, honest-” He said, “I just… don't have anyone else to ask.”

She exhaled deeply and looked away. “What are you and Derek disagreeing about, anyway?” She inquired, “I thought you… wanted- _this_.” She said gesturing limply in his direction.

“It's not really _this_ that we're not agreeing on. It's just-” He tipped his head to the side and looked at the window. He could feel her eyes move back to him. “He said he'd teach us how to control it, right? So the full moon wouldn't control _us_. But he- says he hasn't had time.”

“The full moon is next week.” She remarked.

“Oh, I know.” He said, gaze touching back at her. “Trust me. But now he's just going to chain us all up and I don't-” He clenched his jaw for a second. Was he really going to say this? “I don't do well with being _confined_.” He could see her hands grip tighter on the desk, her eyes were hard. “As I think you know. I don’t know what exactly he showed you, but...” He wanted to bring it up, just so he knew, but he didn't want to give her time to respond to it. From her reaction it was clear that she'd seen enough in the Lahey home to know. “Worst of it is, if Derek has to babysit us, we'll be sitting ducks for your uncle and Gerard.”

“Does Derek need help?” She asked.

“ _What_?”

She settled a sharp look on him. “You heard me.”

He grinned in amusement. “I’m sorry,” He said with a light laugh. “I don’t think _guns_ are exactly the help Derek’s looking for.”

“I have more than just _guns_ up my sleeve.” She told him.

“Knives.”

“That too.” She said. “Remember the whole, I’ve been trained my entire life to handle _werewolves_? Yeah. I think I can handle a couple unruly wolves.”

He looked at her for a couple seconds until he could feel her starting to get uncomfortable. “You were going to shoot me at the police station.” He remarked. “On my first full moon.”

“I was not-” She said, but she had looked away from him.

“You had your hand on your gun, when I changed back.”

“You wanted to _eat_ Stiles.” She defended. “I only would have shot you in the leg or something.”

“ _Only **!”**_ He repeated in disbelief, louder than he probably should have.

She winced slightly and heard movement from the other room. “Good job,” She told him, “You got the authorities involved.”

The door swung open and Allison’s head popped in. “Are you alright, I thought I heard-” Her eyes landed back on Isaac, where he was sitting with one leg bent and the other stuck out straight, taking up enough of the bed that he knew Natalie wouldn’t be likely to climb on the bed with him. “Why are you _still here_?” She demanded, then looked at Natalie.

“I was trying to tell him that if I shot him, I’d shoot to maim, not to kill.” She said, “He’s offended.”

“I’m getting shot, either way.” He countered.

“ _I’d_ shoot to kill,” Allison offered lightly, “At least then you’d be _quiet_.” She added with a pointed look.

“Noted.” Isaac returned.

“Goodnight, Nat.” Allison called as she shut the door.

“Night, Alli.” She answered, raising her voice to reach through the door. She raised a hand to rub her eye drowsily. “Yeah, that’s us, too.” She mumbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! A huge thanks to everyone who left me some kudos, particularly StrayDemons this time around!
> 
> (And of course the others who are here with me each chapter of the way... you know who you are ;) )


	32. Chapter 32

She didn’t want to open her eyes. The details of the dream were fuzzy, but she knew that it was probably not the best dream to be having with Isaac lying beside her, his leg warm against hers, and somehow, he’d flipped onto his stomach, with an arm draped over her waist. And she was sure that’s likely what triggered it, and she was desperately curious to the dream’s authenticity, if his hips would fit perfectly between her legs, and if his breath would fan over her collarbone-

She hastily slid back on the pillow top and out of his arm’s reach. She couldn’t afford to be thinking of him like this. Especially not now.

Her quick movement woke him up, and he shifted slightly, pulling his arm back to himself and tipping his chin up from where it had been tucked against his shoulder to look at her from beneath his heavy lids.

It took him a couple seconds for his eyes to really focus on her, giving her time to check the clock. Her alarm was going to go off in less than twenty minutes, anyway.

“You smell like…” His voice began and she looked back over at him. Obviously, being a werewolf, he could smell her every emotion, even if he wasn’t aware of what exactly it meant. His fingertips dug into her sheets for just a moment while he tried to unsuccessfully find a word, then shook his head slightly in defeat.

“Thanks?” She said as if it were a question, looking at him with her eyebrows knitted, hoping that he wouldn’t figure out that it was _want_ that she smelled like. She started to scramble out from under the covers.

“It’s not _bad_.” He said quickly, like he was afraid of her taking it as an insult. “I mean, you smell good, I just-”

“Please shut up before you embarrass yourself more.”

She climbed to her feet and opened her closet. The blessing of being awake earlier on a Saturday meant that Allison’s alarm hadn’t gone off yet. Because, even if she’d known that Isaac was there last night, she definitely didn’t expect Natalie to have let him stay. And also the benefit of knowing that if Chris and Vic were going to barge in, it wouldn’t be for another hour at least. She didn’t _need_ to force him out in a rush like last time, though a part of her still wanted to.

“So you wanna tell me who the Kanima is yet?” He asked after she’d started rummaging through her clothes and fishing out something she could jog in. She needed to keep herself moving even on off days. Maybe it was to give her time to process things. To think. Or maybe it was to control the anxiety she pretended she didn’t have.

She pressed her lips together for a second and yanked a sweatshirt off a hanger. “Nope. But nice try.” She said without looking back. It seemed too calculated. Like he wanted her to _think_ he didn’t already know. That he didn’t listen in on their phone call.

She was probably overthinking it. But it was her nature to assume the worst.

As she dumped her chosen outfit onto her desk, her phone buzzed on the bedside table across the room. And incoming text, which made her freeze for a second and debate whether she even wanted to look at it.

Isaac glanced at the phone, then looked at her. “I can’t tell if you’re annoyed or terrified about that.” He remarked.

Her eyes slid over to glare at him, then she leaned over and focused on grabbing her hairbrush. “Tell me who it’s from and I’ll tell you which.”

He pushed himself up to peer across the bed. “Lydia.” He answered.

“And what does she want?” Nat asked, pushing the brush through her hair. She always woke up with snarls that made it sound like she’d be bald by the time she got through them unless she braided her hair before bed. She was far too lazy for that most nights, though.

He glanced at her, but grabbed the phone and opened the message before shooting her another look. “Shopping day?”

She groaned. “Well, _of course_.” She dropped into her desk chair and ran her hands over her face, the overlong sleeves of the too-big sweatshirt she’d worn to bed pressed against her mouth. She was _not a fan_ of Lydia’s shopping trips into LA. But she felt like she never had a good enough excuse not to go.

“It’s a group text with Allison.” Isaac continued.

Natalie tipped her head down so her hands covered her eyes. “And Allison’s going to say yes for both of us, like usual-”

“Why can’t you just say you don’t want to go?” He inquired.

“Because Lydia’s my friend, and I-”

“Is she _your_ friend, or _Allison’s_?” He pressed.

She looked up at him, “She’s my friend too, thanks.” She answered tersely. “Even if Allison’s the _reason_ she’s my friend, and we have _completely_ different ideas of how to properly spend a Saturday-”

She needed to get done with her jog before she was expected to be catching their carpool. She fished a hair tie out of a jar on her desk and started pulling her hair back.

“I’ve got to get a run in before Lydia comes to pick us up.” She said, standing up and gathering her clothes into her arms so she could take them into the bathroom with her, “You can come with if you want.”

She asked partially out of curtesy, but as the words left her mouth, she found herself surprised that she actually wanted him to say yes.

* * *

It turned into a race. It was not her usual wake-me-up jog, but an all-out sprint. And she was _losing_. _Badly_.

By the end, which he’d beat her by several yards, she flopped onto the grass alongside the trail, her lungs burning and hardly able to feed her the oxygen she needed.

“ _Fine_.” She said, her voice airy and forced, “You win-”

“That’s all you’ve got, Isserman?” He teased, though he sounded slightly breathless himself. “I hardly broke a sweat-”

She realized her mistake when she looked over to see him bent with his hands on his knees, breathing hard. She hadn’t held back. She’d run as fast as she could, which was faster than any human teenage girl had any business running.

She’d fucked up.

All her time trying to come across as _not_ supernatural. Not letting anyone outside of the select few in on the intimate details of her abilities. Lying by omission. All of it wasted.

But he didn’t seem suspicious. At all. In fact, he was grinning as he looked over at her, “Pathetic.”

She stayed splayed out on the ground, “You know what? You can keep your werewolf athleticism to yourself, Lahey-”

He laughed, straightening up, “Excuses.”

She fought back her own laugh and failed, raising a hand to cover her face.

“I guess you should get back before Lydia comes looking for you, huh?” He said, taking a couple steps closer to her.

She groaned and ran her hand over the hair that was pulled back across her head. “Probably.” She looked up at him, and he offered her a hand.

She reluctantly grabbed it, and he hauled her to her feet. She held on for a moment too long while her legs got used to bearing her weight again, then they started walking back.

“I know I said it before, but… Sorry for conspiring to kill her.” He said.

She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets. “I’m still a little pissed.” She returned, but her tone was nearly as sharp as it should’ve been. “Especially since Stiles said you had a grudge because of a middle school crush on her.”

His head tipped backwards, “Really, you’re upset about _that_? Of all the details-”

“Petty.” She remarked. “Absolutely petty.”

“Well, I don’t still have a crush on her, if it makes you feel better.”

“You’re still petty.”

“You’re one to talk,” He countered, “Miss ‘ _Allison will kill me if she sees you-’”_

Without hesitation, she whipped a hand out and smacked his arm. He laughed. She cast him a short glare.

“She _would have_.” Nat assured him, “Trust me, with how _painfully_ transparent she is about her and Scott-”

“Are you insinuating something here, Natalie-”

“Absolutely _fucking_ not-” She cut across him, “But I’m saying that if I so much as sat by someone at lunch, she’d be upset if I didn’t tell her, so-” She drew in a heavy sigh, “I’ve got to be careful.”

“Rough.” He offered.

“You should be a motivational speaker, Lahey.”

“You’re my test subject.”

She rolled her eyes. They weren’t that far from the house now. And Natalie knew better than to tempt fate.

“I’ve got it from here.” She said, grinding to a halt and turning slightly to look at him. “You’re free to do whatever dastardly deeds are on the agenda for the day.”

For a second, he looked like he was caught off-guard that she was going to just cut him loose like that, but he had to know that she needed to be careful that no one at the house would see him with her.

“Right,” He said, “I’ll see you Monday, I guess.”

She nodded, “Let me know if anything crazy happens before then.”

He gave a small, noncommittal nod himself. “Sure.”

He wouldn’t let her know, of course. But the formalities were nice.

She went back to the house alone, showered, and got ready for the day.

_Shopping_ had been about as exciting as Natalie had assumed it would be, which was nil. However. Nat had to admit that it was nice to get out of Beacon Hills, if even for an afternoon. For a few hours, they were just three high schoolers on a daytrip to LA – not a hunter, a therian, and a mystery all trapped in the utter turmoil of a small city in SoCal.

So she couldn’t say she was relieved to come back. Because it just meant she was back to her problems. And everyone else’s.

It was only more evident when they went back to school on Monday.

Natalie left Allison to go to the library and drop off her tablet, with the translated Latin text. She’d texted Stiles to set it up, and wanted to go along, but this was the hour she had precalculus and the others had a free period. She’d probably commit academic suicide if she missed anymore calc. She tapped her eraser on the desk impatiently, alternating between looking at the clock, and glancing at the phone in her lap. Honestly, she probably wasn’t benefitting from going to class anyway, with how distracted she was.

**_Allison [1:21 pm]  
_ ** _Im talking to Jackson_

**_Natalie [1:23 pm]  
_ ** _Lmk if you want backup_

**_Allison [1:24 pm]  
_ ** _Got this (:_

Natalie fidgeted the rest of the way through the hour, constantly checking her phone, and texting Allison again when there were only a few minutes left of class. She didn’t get an answer, and she was starting to get nervous. As soon as the bell rang, she tossed her stuff into her locker and started down the stairs, heading towards the athletics wing. She knew Jackson well enough to know that he almost always spent free period practicing. She was sure that’s where Scott would have sent Allison looking for him- the locker rooms.

She caught sight of Stiles and Erica heading down the hall that way, turning the corner up ahead, and got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She darted down the hall as fast as she could without drawing undue attention, turning the corner just in time to see Erica and Stiles stopped, and Jackson and Scott burst out of the locker room, attempting their damnedest to pummel each other.

She wanted to shove her way down the corridor, especially when she saw Allison come out of the locker room looking shook up, but as soon as the noise had started, students had flooded out of classrooms and from other hallways trying to see what the ruckus was about, and Nat couldn’t squeeze through fast enough before Mister Harris emerged and granted them all a detention.

So that day, after class, Natalie was sitting on the floor of the hallway, working on her precalc homework as she waited for Allison and the others to get out of their detentions. She scribbled away, feeling like she was writing more problems than she was solving, as she watched Mister Harris leave for the day, and Scott go to the office when he was called, and return. Where was Isaac? She hadn’t seen him all day and it was suspicious that he hadn’t gotten involved in whatever this was that was going on in the library during detention.

She was just finishing up her last homework problem when she heard noises in the library. Crashing, thudding, shuffling. She shoved herself up, leaving her Calculus book as she spun around the corner and shoved through the doors just as Jackson – or the Kanima, she wasn’t quite sure – dove through a window and left a blackboard there, saying he’d kill anyone who got in the way.

“Allison!” Nat cried, running past the shelving until she found her cousin crouched by Matt’s unconscious body. But she could feel something else. She could feel a corporal affliction in her nerves, something alerting her to someone a couple rows over. “Erica,” She breathed.

“Get her to the hospital,” Scott said, rounding the corner.

“He can’t take her alone, not like this,” Allison assured him.

Natalie pulled Matt up, Doing a quick once-over for any sign of the Kanima – Jackson – having touched him. There was a small cut at the back of his neck. However, unlike Erica, his vitals seemed fine.

Scott and Allison kept talking, like this was some pivotal moment in their relationship. Maybe it was, but Natalie was too absorbed in the fact that _Matt_ , of all of them, had been paralyzed. She pressed two fingers to his throat. Nothing about his pulse screamed at her as unusual, but something didn’t feel right.

Stiles and Scott rushed out of the library with Erica, determined to get her to Derek like she had asked. Natalie grabbed Allison’s arm. The brunette started typing something into her phone, but looked up at her cousin.

“I’m going with Stiles,” She said, careful not to mention Scott or Erica. She had a feeling Allison didn’t want to hear their names. “Matt will be fine, trust me. Call me if you need anything.”

Allison nodded, biting her lip. Nat hated to leave her here like this, but she knew nothing was _really_ wrong with Matt, and she wanted to find out where Derek was hiding out.

She offered a lousy smile to Allison, then stood up and ran around the corner, and down the hall after Scott and Stiles, only barely catching them as they started piling into Stiles’ Jeep. Scott was in the back holding Erica’s head up, and Stiles was behind the wheel. Nat jumped into the passenger seat without waiting for them to acknowledge her, and twisted back to lean over the center console and into the backseat.

“Natalie-” Scott said in shock at the same time that Stiles hissed, “What the _hell_.”

“Turn her head.” Nat told Scott sharply. “Don’t tilt it back, turn it to the side.” She explained. “It keeps her airway open.”

Scott obeyed her commands. “Why are you-”

“Because Matt is _fine_. I don’t know why he got hit, but he’s fine. Erica is not.” She answered.

They sped down the city streets, to the warehouse district. Nat wasn’t sure how they knew how to find Derek’s hideaway, but she wasn’t about to ask questions. She pulled Erica’s hair out of her face, her jaw tight at the frightened look on the girls’ face. She may have butted heads with Erica. She may have briefly wanted to skin her when she’d taken her knife and taunted her over her lack of a gun, but they weren’t that different overall. Forced into circumstances that they hadn’t quite anticipated, fighting something down that they’d tried so hard to get rid of.

Natalie had a hard time witnessing other peoples’ fear.

They reached an older-looking building in the heart of the warehouses that Natalie thought looked like it might have been an old subway facility, with all of its signs and identifiers torn down. They pushed open the doors and descended the stairs onto what looked like a trashed utility platform, a few florescent lights still illuminated above.

“She’s- we think it’s a seizure.” Scott explained, the beautiful blonde girl in his arms, gasping for breath, her muscles tensing and untensing and tensing again. Natalie and Stiles followed close as Derek took her and rushed into a dilapidated subway car, laying her across a bench of three seats.

“Hold her up!” Derek snapped.

“Is she dying?” Stiles asked, a hesitant stop in his voice as he hurried to prop Erica up against himself, her head on his shoulder.

“She might, I-” Derek’s voice sounded rushed, anxious, _concerned_. Nat’s heart jumped.

She’d thought Derek had turned them, just for the purpose of getting stronger, but his reaction, sympathy and the nervous note in his voice made her second-guess herself, if just for a moment. _He really felt like he was helping them_.

“Okay, this is gonna hurt.” Derek warned, grabbing her wrist. Natalie knew what was coming. She seized Erica’s free hand in both of hers, gripping tightly. Even if Erica broke her fingers, it would heal faster than Stiles’ face if she smacked him on accident.

Derek twisted, breaking the forearm just above the wrist. Erica screamed in pain, jerking in Stiles’ hold. Natalie felt something in her right hand snap, though she wasn’t sure if it was a break, or if the joints had just cracked. She held on tight, gritting her teeth. She’d experienced broken bones, the re-breaks necessary to set uneven healing. It was a bitch.

“It’ll trigger the healing process.” Derek explained, to Stiles and Scott’s shock. “I’ve still gotta get the venom out.” Erica was still crying out in pain, though less urgently than before. “This is where it’s really gonna hurt.” Derek squeezed harder, and Erica’s shrieks strengthened. Nat could feel her hand compacting within Erica’s, but just squeezed a little more. It’d be done soon.

Blood dribbled out from the new wound Derek created, smelling strongly of something other than the metallic zing of blood. The Kanima venom. The amount that had been released into her veins was clearly more than the normal amount. It had triggered some deep part of the girl’s brain, where the chemical imbalances and receptor defects had helped cause her seizures in the first place. If Derek could jumpstart the healing now, it might bridge whatever gap had existed there and actually cure them instead of covering them up.

Erica stopped crying out, though she was still breathing hard. She released Natalie’s hand, to let her fingers brush Stiles’ sleeve. “Stiles,” She said, looking up at him, “You make a good Batman.”

After Erica had calmed down, and the venom was successfully removed from her system, Stiles sat monitoring her as she drifted in and out of consciousness, her body working overtime to heal her. Natalie and Scott followed Derek out of the Subway car and back out onto the platform.

“You know who it is.” Scott accused.

Derek stopped, and turned to look at them before sitting back on a tall trunk. “Jackson.” He replied.

Natalie gritted her teeth. Was it her? Was it the call she and Allison made that she asked Isaac not to listen in to?

“You just wanted Erica to confirm it, didn’t you?” Scott demanded.

“Was it Isaac?” Natalie asked before Derek could say anything.

“No, it wasn’t Isaac.” Derek said, looking pointedly at her before shifting his focus to Scott.

“I’m gonna help you stop him,” Scott said, “As part of your pack.” Natalie looked at him in surprise, but didn’t speak. “If you want me in – fine. But we do it on one condition. We’re gonna catch him, not kill him.”

“And?” Derek prompted through his teeth, his jaw tight. He arched his brows.

“We do it _my_ way.” Scott finished.

Derek nodded slowly, then turned his eyes on Nat. “And what about you?”

“I’m not going to tell Chris.” She said, crossing her arms, “Or Aunt Vic, or Gerard.” Derek stared at her, slowly lifting his brows again. “I’m going to help, _Jackass_.” She snapped.


	33. Chapter 33

She strode down the hallway into the kitchen, kicking her tennis shoes off and peering around the corner to see Chris reading a paper, eating a candy bar.

“Uncle Chris, you know Vic would kill you if she saw you eating that.” She said.

“But Vic isn’t here,” He reasoned, pointing at her as she walked around the corner and went to the fridge to grab out a water bottle and stare inside looking for something to eat. It was a late night at the school for Aunt Victoria, so the house was on its’ own for supper. “Also, I’m taking Allison on a quick training trip tonight, so you’ll have to hold down the fort.”

“I’ll manage.” Natalie said, “Is there still leftover spaghetti?”

“I think so-” He said, “The red lid, there.”

She pulled it out and opened it. Sure enough, spaghetti. As she warmed it in the microwave, Chris folded up his paper and crumpled up the wrapper for the candy as small as he could make it before striding over to the garbage can and tossing it in.

“How was practice?” He asked.

_Practice_? They hadn’t had practice. But Natalie knew better. “It was good. Coach is working us twice as hard to prepare for finals.” She said.

“That’s what Allison said about this _surprise_ practice. I wish they’d send out emails about it or something. I want to know when you have to stay late.” He glanced at her as she pulled the Tupperware from the microwave and used a fork to stir it up.

“I’ll text you next time, I promise. I just forgot.” She said, taking a bite to test it. Cold. She made a face and shoved it back it, draping the lid back on top.

He looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. “Allison!” He called.

“Coming!” Allison’s voice returned from upstairs right before Nat heard her feet run down from her bedroom. She grinned at Nat when she made it to the kitchen, stopping to pull the heels of her shoes up.

“Thanks for grabbing my Calculus book, Alli.” Nat told her.

“No problem.” Allison said, “You’re the only person I know who actually uses _paper bags_ to make her book covers, so-”

Natalie pressed her lips together and looked at the ceiling. “It’s less tacky when-” She began to say something, but the door to the garage opening cut across her.

“Bye!” Allison called, darting down the hallway.

The microwave beeped.

Nat blew air through her nose and turned around, popping the spaghetti out and shoving her fork in it before heading upstairs. There wasn’t anyone to stop her from bringing food up to her room now.

“About time.” She nearly jumped out of her skin when she opened the door to her bedroom. “What took you so long?”

Isaac was sitting on the chair in front of her desk, one elbow propped on the desktop itself, leaning his cheek in his hand.

“What _the hell, Lahey_?” She hissed, half-tempted to throw the open container of hot spaghetti at him, but she was too hungry for that. He didn’t say anything right away. She made a frustrated noise at the back of her throat, dropped her bag on the floor, and hopped onto her bed before digging her fork into the leftovers.

_God_ she was hungry.

“School was out almost three hours ago,” He said, watching her gracelessly devour the pasta.

“I was Derek’s subway hidey-hole,” She said in between bites, “Erica started having a seizure in-”

“I know that part,” Isaac interrupted her, “Derek told me that.”

“Then I had to go _back_ to the school to get my wallet and homework.” She was almost halfway through the spaghetti and still felt hungry. Lacrosse season made her a bottomless pit. “And since it’s after four, I had to use the public entrance and walk _all the way_ back to the sophomore lockers.” She ate another couple bites of spaghetti before she remembered that she still didn’t know what exactly he was doing, waiting for her to get home. “Why are you here, exactly?” She asked.

“I have something for you.” He remarked, turning his face down towards the desk.

She lowered the Tupperware into her lap, “You know, I don’t really think I like the way-” She started to say, but broke off when he snatched something up from the desktop. Something thin and narrow. She reached over and took it from him, albeit cautiously. “Is this a ticket?” Was this Isaac’s weird way of asking her out?

“Yeah,” He said, “That’s where Jackson’s gonna be tomorrow night. We think Matt will be there, too, and he’s also on our list of suspicious characters.”

Of course it wasn’t a date. _Why on earth would it be_? She looked down at the ticket. It was for a rave, basically. Some EDM DJ playing a secret show in the warehouse district. Derek had some unsavory neighbors. “Matt?” She prompted, “Lacrosse team Matt?”

“Yeah, Erica heard Scott and Stiles talking about him in detention.”

She looked back up at him. “You talked to Erica? Is she doing better?”

“I mean, her wrist hurts like hell, but what do you expect?” Isaac said, slowly turning back and forth on the spinning desk chair.

Natalie glanced back at the ticket. “Why do I get one of these?” She flapped it in the air for emphasis.

“Derek said you’re helping.” Isaac replied simply.

She considered that for a moment. “What else… has Derek said? About me?” She watched him open his mouth, then realized how stupidly ambiguous her question was and thought better. “How do you know that Isserman isn’t- _really_ my last name?” She amended.

Isaac tapped his fingers on her desk for a moment. “He said Deponte was your mother’s last name, like Allison’s mom’s.” He explained. “Isserman was your father’s name, and you used that so people wouldn’t expect you to be a hunter.”

She looked down at the remaining spaghetti and poked it with her fork. “Did he say- anything else about my father?” She asked quietly.

He shook his head lightly, “No, just that he wasn’t a hunter.” He tapped the desk again, watching her. “Why?”

She lifted her face, shaking her head sharply. “He was an asshole, that’s all.”

He nodded, slowly, then pushed himself up from the chair. “Well, I guess it’s about time-”

“Isaac,” She said, freezing him in his tracks. She used his first name when she was serious. When she was mad, or asking important favors. Or when he had kissed her. She had his attention. “Thanks for not eavesdropping on the phone call last night.” She said, glancing away from his eyes for a second before forcing herself to meet them. “Or at least for not telling Derek.” She raised a hand and scratched the spot behind her ear. “I really- really appreciate it.”

It was fascinating watching her be nervous. A while ago, he hadn’t thought it was possible. Natalie was one of the cockiest people on the lacrosse team, and the lacrosse team was where the entire school’s cockiness was condensed. Her ability to care what other people thought of her seemed abbreviated at best. He had guessed that it had come from the tendency of her family to move so often. She didn’t care to get attached, or be bothered by opinions when she’d be leaving so soon. It was nearly the opposite of the effect that the frequent moves had on Allison, however. Now, he assumed that Natalie’s seemingly bulletproof exterior was more the consequence of her training. She knew more about the natural world than the vast majority of high school students. She was well versed both in offensive and defensive combat, close- and far-range. She’d had a hand in the capture of many werewolves. It had hardened her. Overall, her attitude came off as the classic stone-cold bitch.

But now that he’d acquired the senses that came along with the territory of being a werewolf, he could hear her heart beating hard in her chest. The way she struggled to meet his eyes. He could almost _smell_ the anxiety on her. Apparently, the stone-cold bitch only went so deep.

He was reminded of Derek’s repeated warnings, threats of what could happen if he wasn’t careful. But maybe she wasn’t as good at deceiving people as Derek thought.

… Or maybe she was.

Maybe she was working just as hard to earn his trust as he was hers. He had a feeling she was winning.

“So do you trust me now?” He asked.

She gave a light, short laugh. “We’re getting there, Lahey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are all fantastic, and I am blessed to have you all here! I've spent a lot of time on this fic the last few days, so I hope it pays off!


	34. Chapter 34

“You beat up Kyle and Nathan?” Natalie hissed at him as they walked out to the field for morning practice.

“They had tickets.” Isaac said, as if that didn’t give her more questions than answers.

“Tickets?” She repeated in disbelief. “I have a ticket. How did you not have a ticket?” She prompted.

“I do have a ticket.” He responded.

She gestured sharply with her hands, then smacked him lightly on the shoulder. He looked down at her. “ _Then why did you need more_?”

He glanced pointedly over his shoulder, at where Scott and Stiles were now exiting the building, talking animatedly about something.

“Jesus Christ.” She breathed.

“I don’t understand why you hang around them, honestly.” He said, sitting on the bench, leaning his lacrosse stick beside himself to pull his helmet on. “They’re hopeless.”

She dropped her own helmet on the bench and lifted a leg up to tie her cleats. She’d made the mistake before of forgetting to tie them, and had paid dearly in both skinned knees and humiliation. “They’re _good guys_.” She countered.

“I’m a good guy.” Isaac argued. She stopped and looked at him, her hands frozen in the middle of double-knotting her laces. “I haven’t killed anyone.” He offered.

She made a derisive sound and yanked her laces tight, lowering that foot and bringing up the other. “Not killing anyone _doesn’t make you a good guy_.” She said.

Practice was brutal. Coach was ticked off that Jackson hadn’t shown, and it was nearing championships. He worked the whole team harder than usual to make himself feel better. Nat’s legs burned by the time they headed back inside, which wasn’t a common occurrence. Usually lacrosse wasn’t enough to totally wear her out, but it definitely had been today. She could only imagine how the humans on the team were feeling.

She had a hard time focusing on anything during her classes, knowing that they were going to have to incapacitate Jackson, and possibly his puppeteer later that night. At lunch, she sat with Stiles and Scott, hardly able to eat her lunch, despite her stomach growling. This was the first time she’d do something directly against her Aunt and Uncle’s wishes. She knew them and the other hunters, Gerard included, were planning something, but they weren’t telling her. She had a feeling that Allison actually knew more than her this time, and it burrowed under her skin and multiplied there. They’d even stopped asking Natalie for information, which was by far the most surprising part. She supposed that after enough times of only giving useless, vague details, Chris and Vic no longer felt it was worth wasting the breath. Somehow, it wasn’t just relief that she felt at not being questioned any longer, but also hurt.

“So, what’s the plan?” She asked lowly, stirring her mac and cheese. It looked more like cheese soup than like pasta sauce.

“We’re getting supplies from Doctor Deaton.” Scott told her.

“And you think Derek and them will actually listen to you?” She inquired, dropping her fork to instead eat her carrots.

“That’s what we agreed to.” Scott said.

“We’ll all have to be on the same page if we want this to work,” Stiles pointed out. “We know what happens when we’re not.”

“Did you get a ticket?” Scott asked, glancing up at Natalie.

“Yeah.” She answered, crunching off a bite of carrot.

“Where’d you get one?” Stiles prompted in surprise.

Nat chewed for a second. “Isaac.” She responded.

“Did he beat someone up for you, too?” Stiles said.

“I don’t think so.” She said, “He gave it to me last night.” Stiles’ eyebrows shot up so high and fast that she feared for a second they’d fly right off his face.

“You’re sure you’re not-” Scott began.

“ _No_ , McCall.” She hissed.

At that moment, she felt someone drop onto the seat next to hers at the lunch table. She could already smell him.

“What are we talking about?” Isaac asked innocently. She could see him glance at the boys sitting across the table, then settle a shit-eating smile on her. He had definitely heard the last bit of their conversation and was trying his damnedest to make her as uncomfortable as possible. She slammed her elbow on the table and slapped her hand over her face. “Natalie?” Isaac inquired.

Nat looked back up, her chin in her hand. She looked between the three boys. “I’m going to go sit by Alli.” She said decisively, pushing herself up and snatching her tray to go find her cousin.

After school was let out, Natalie hopped into her car and headed to the warehouse district to where she now knew Derek was inhabiting. She parked in an alley, were there appeared to once be a loading dock. She shoved one hand into her sweatshirt pocket and tested the door. It opened under her fingers, unlocked. She started down the stairs from the door, looking down at the mess that was the platform.

“Derek?” She called.

She heard heavy chains moving inside the subway car, before he strode out and looked up at her descending the stairs, not looking at all happy to see her. She guessed that she couldn’t blame him.

“Where are your mini-mes?” She asked.

“Erica and Isaac are scouting the venue for tonight.” He said, “Boyd’s at work.”

It was hard for her to imagine that Boyd still had his old job, driving the Zamboni at the ice rink. After all of this, he still had a normal job. It made Natalie wonder about Isaac’s job, since his dad had been the manager of Beacon Hills’ largest cemetery, and Isaac had been the gravedigger. A detail that she’d learned, without him saying it himself.

“I wanted to talk to you about something.” She said, reaching the bottom of the stairs as he started shuffling through a trunk.

“Why stop there?” He prompted her, “You’ve already trespassed.”

She came to a stop on the other side of the open trunk. “I want to help you. On the full moon.”

“Really?” He said, looking at her with his eyebrows arched demandingly. “And how do you propose to do that?”

She tipped her head slightly. The hazel of her eyes brightened, losing their color and fading into a glowing silver. “I have a couple advantages if something goes wrong.”

“You think so?” He said, pulling a length of chain out and dropping it on the floor before pulling out yet another chain. “Have you told anyone about that yet?”

“Scott and Stiles.” She replied.

“And the rest of them?” He said, thrusting the chain towards her.

She took it and looped it over her shoulder. “I’d rather let it play itself out-”

“So they can be pissed at you when they find out you’ve been keeping things?” He remarked, handing her a large brace from out of the trunk. “Especially your boyfriend.”

She gave a single mocking bark of a laugh, but felt her skin crawl at the word. “If you’re talking about Lahey again, you’re still wrong.”

“Really?” He said, glancing over at her. “You have palpitations whenever he’s around. I can hear it.”

“ _Palpitations_.” She repeated with ample amounts of dry snark. “The _last thing_ I want is Isaac Lahey. I’m a hunter, remember?”

“You’re not acting like one.”

“I am _here_ \- to keep these kids from becoming murderers.” She said, looking at him seriously. He started walking back over to the train car with his arms full of chains and shackles. She didn’t want to know where he accumulated so many. “Not because I have some crush on Lahey, or because I like you whatsoever. So fuck you very much for trying to make it something more.” She followed him, dumping the things she was carrying onto a plastic seat once they were inside.

“Hm, defensive.” He dropped the shackles onto a chair loudly enough that she didn’t hear the door into the warehouse open.

“I will break your nose, Hale.” She warned him, draping the end of the chain over the back of the chair. She really needed better threats.

“Oh, I’m sure you would.” He said, looking over at her, “If you could.”

She set her jaw, narrowing her eyes at him for a second before picking up the large brace he’d given her and looking at it. It looked atrocious. She realized suddenly that it was a crown, with screws placed around it, pointing inwards to the middle. It was meant to prevent the shift by creating pressure on the skull, which would increase when the wearer began to change. She dropped it back onto the pile of chains and began hunting for the end of the links. The crown slipped off and onto the grimy floor.

She made a disgusted noise. “You know, Derek,” Natalie remarked, picking it back up and shaking it a couple times as if that would clean it off, “I haven’t told you what a nice place you have.” She kicked an old fast-food wrapper out of sight beneath the seats. “Did the rats come with, or were they an extra charge?”

“I didn’t ask for your smart-ass comments, Deponte.” He shot back at her, loosening the screws on a shackle.

“Consider it free entertainment-” She offered.

“What are you doing here?”

She started slightly and turned towards the voice. Isaac was leaning against the doorway into the train. She could see Erica sitting on a bench out on the platform, her back against a wall and her feet kicked up on a box and eating French fries.

“Palpitations.” She heard Derek remark from somewhere over her shoulder, and chucked a padlock at him with uncanny accuracy. He swatted it away as if it were a Nerf dart.

“I’m _helping_.” She said.

“Barely.” Derek added.

She turned an exasperated look on him. He returned it unwaveringly. “Fine.” She said, “I’m going to go get ready for the show, then.” She said, brushing past Isaac.

She drove back to the house, debating what to wear the whole drive home. She wanted to fit in to the party crowd, which basically ruled out her entire closet, but she wanted to be able to conceal at least one weapon on her person, which significantly ruled out much of Allison’s closet.

Once she was home, she knocked on Allison’s door and strode in without waiting for an answer. Allison was sitting at her desk, holding up two different earrings.

“Which ones?” She asked without missing a beat. Natalie looked at them, one was a silvery hoop-like earring, and the other was a dangly bead-like earring.

“Silver,” She said, “Definitely silver.” She pulled off her sweatshirt, leaving her in a sports bra and her leggings. “I need help picking out clothes.” She announced, striding right to the already-open closet and halting in front of it, her fists propped on her hips.

“For what?” Allison asked, finishing sticking in her earrings as she stood up and walked over.

“An underground rave.” Nat answered, only then realizing that Allison had changed after school into a small denim chambray romper, with a cardigan pulled over it.

“You’re going too?” Allison demanded.

“You _are not-_ ” Natalie began, turning to stare at her cousin in dismay.

“I _am_.” Allison interrupted her.

“Oh God.” Nat said. “That’s where-” She started to say.

“I know.” Allison said.

Natalie took a deep breath. “First things first, I need clothes.”

Allison chewed on her bottom lip, but leaned forward, shuffling through some hangers in her closet. “This,” She said, grabbing a hanger, “Or this?” She held them both up for Nat to see. One was an off-the shoulder top that would be a pain in the butt to brawl in, and the other-

“Since when do you have a _crop top_?” Natalie demanded.

“Since Lydia insisted on buying it for me.” Allison defended, then thrust it at her cousin. “Wear it with leggings or jeans or something.”

“Everyone is going to _stare-_ ” Natalie started to protest.

“Yeah, because you’re going to look good.” Allison insisted. “Put it on.”

Nat reluctantly obeyed, yanking on the crop top. It had a fairly high neck that she tugged at a couple times before she got frustrated enough to just leave it, and it ended right above her belly button. “Are you kidding-”

Allison waved away her comment and started hunting through her closet again to pull out a pair of black skinny jeans.

Once Natalie was dressed to Allison’s content, she snuck into her own room to throw on a light jacket over the crop top. At least then she could zip it shut if she felt too uncomfortable.

**_Isaac [9:31 pm]  
_ ** _were leaving soon. meet u there_

“Allison, I’m heading out,” Natalie poked her head into her cousin’s room just as the other girl was sliding on her shoes. “Be careful tonight, okay?” She said.

“Yeah,” Allison said, “You too.”

Natalie offered a short smile, then ran downstairs and out to her car. There were guns missing from the garage.


	35. Chapter 35

Isaac looked over at Erica as the sound of the music inside met their ears. Her hair was straighter than usual, and in her cut up tank top, she looked very rocker-chic. The look on her face also said she could fuck someone up.

“You did text her, right?” Erica remarked, looking over at Isaac. He looked normal. Guys barely ever tried.

“Of course I did.” He replied. Erica muttered something under her breath. He didn’t care to know what it was.

The sound of sneakers approached from behind him and he turned to look over his shoulder.

Natalie’s red hair was loose over her shoulders, and she was wearing dark jeans and a dark red crop top that made it very hard for him to not stare at her midriff like a creep. He knew she was in good shape from playing lacrosse, but the last thing he needed right now was to be distracted by just _how_ good of shape she was in.

Maybe he would get the chance to dance with her after they’d taken care of Jackson and his master, and he could run his fingers over the bare skin between her top and her jeans.

“ _Isaac_.” Erica hissed at him under her breath. He was already getting distracted.

“Finally decide to grace us with your presence, Isserman?” He called.

“Shut up, Lahey.” She returned. “I’m only like, two minutes late.” She said.

“Not important.” Erica said, “We have a monster to catch.” She grinned like the devil and led them up the stairs into the warehouse.

The sound hit them like a wall as soon as they stepped in. The ground vibrated beneath their feet and into the soles of their shoes as they handed their tickets to the bouncer and worked their way through the hall into the main pit, a large open area in the building that was a full-sensory assault of bright flashing and roving lights, moving bodies filling the space but for some remote fringes, the smell of people and booze and old cement, and of course the music, which felt like something solid moving through the air.

“I’ll find Scott.” She told them.

“I’ll find Jackson.” Erica said with a wicked glint in her eye before brushing past them.

“I’ll go with you.” Isaac said, looking down at Natalie.

She gave him a distrustful look, “Don’t get any ideas, Lahey.”

“No,” He assured her as she turned and started edging through the crowd. “Of course not.” But as he watched her weave through the crowd ahead of him, he found himself thinking about that bit of skin around her waist again, and thanked his lucky stars that there were so many people around them, and that even if there weren’t, she wouldn’t be able to smell that particular sentiment on him.

They located Scott fairly quickly and huddled at the side of the room.

“Allison told your uncle.” Scott said.

Natalie pressed her lips together. “I thought that she might have…” She said, “They won’t mess around.” She told them, looking over at Scott. “If they get the shot, they will kill him.”

“I don’t think Allison knows that.” Scott said.

“Probably not.” Nat agreed, “She’s still new to this part of the family business.”

“What do you think they’ll do?” Isaac asked.

“They’ll stake out, plant snipers, and Chris will probably lead a flushing operation.” She said, “Just from what I’ve seen before. But there’s a lot of people here, so it’s probably been altered some.” She glanced around the space. “They’ll have parked in the back, probably behind dumpsters or a transformer, or something.”

Scott nodded to her. She knew he’d try to handle them himself. She knew she should help him. He stood a much better chance if he had an insider by his side, but she couldn’t stomach the thought. She was already betraying her family too much. She didn’t want to even think about being the face Chris saw when his plans failed.

She stood with her arms crossed as Scott explained the use of the ketamine syringe to Isaac. She could see things going horribly wrong with the plan here. There were too many people. Too close. Too many liabilities. Her heart thudded angrily in her chest, faster than the bone-shaking bass that pounded through her skin from the air and up her body through her shoes.

Erica stepped up beside her, having returned from tailing Jackson through the crowd. Scott said something to Isaac about being careful, and the latter stared at him, clearly surprised by his concern.

“Erica can distract him.” Natalie suggested. “I think she might be more persuasive on that front.” Erica just smirked. “His senses are heightened, even when he still looks like a human. Don’t let him notice anything threatening.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.” Isaac returned.

“Isaac.” She prompted seriously. He set his jaw and nodded to her. “I’ll be here if you guys need me.”

They all broke off. Scott headed outside to the dumpsters. Isaac and Erica dove into the crowd, moving after Jackson, who was now uncomfortably close to his target. Only a few more yards and he would be free of the crowd. She picked her way around the wall of twisting bodies, putting herself on the edge of the cluster of people, so she could help drag Jackson out to the shed that had been selected earlier for Jackson’s safekeeping once they had him subdued.

Erica placed herself between Jackson and his victim, pressing herself against him. Isaac fixed himself on Erica’s other side. They seemed to have Jackson sufficiently distracted with the dancing that was almost not really dancing. Natalie leaned against a nearby pillar, feeling an amalgamation of things. She felt like she shouldn’t be watching. She felt like she should be protecting Erica and Isaac somehow. Jackson was a _monster_. But it wasn’t him, it was his master. So really, she should save _him_. And _God_ , why did it have to be a rave? Her head ached from the noise and the lights and the _stress_.

She half-wished she’d gone with Scott instead, so she wouldn’t have to see Erica’s hand wrap around the back of Isaac’s neck and pull him closer. Her fingers itched. For a knife, for a chain, for another’s… she wasn’t sure. She didn’t think she wanted to know which as she watched Isaac’s lips brush Erica’s neck.

_Palpitations_.

Isaac struck, or tried to. Anger twisted in Jackson’s face and the two werewolves dropped.

She moved quickly, but the roiling mass of dancing bodies made her progress feel glacially slow. Before she’d even reached the place where she’d seen them last, Isaac met her, the half-limp body of Jackson Whittemore in his arms. She didn’t know how he did it, especially since she was fairly certain she’d seen Jackson’s claws sink into his stomach, but she was relieved.

“Erica-” She started to say.

“She’s coming.” Isaac told her tersely. Sure enough, she could see the girl’s blonde hair bouncing through the crowd towards them.

Natalie seized Jackson’s lifeless arm and pulled it over her shoulder. To any onlookers, he was just a friend who’d drank too much and needed a little help getting off the dancefloor.

Among the three of them, they were able to get him out to the shed fairly easily.

Natalie hopped up onto the brick ledge of what used to be a window, now covered in corrugated metal, to wait until Stiles met them. She crossed her arms and looked down at Jackson, slumped in the folding chair, then over at the other two with her. “Are you guys okay?”

“As much as I can be, after having claws dug into my back.” Erica remarked, glaring venomously down at Jackson’s unconscious body.

Natalie took a deep breath just as the door opened and they all jumped slightly. Erica’s claws came out.

“Ah- no no!” Stiles said quickly, “Just me! It’s just me.” He shut the door behind himself. “ _Freaking kidding-_ ” He muttered under his breath, looking at Isaac and Natalie as well. “Is he okay?” He asked, gesturing at Jackson.

“Well,” Isaac said, stepping closer to Jackson. “Let’s find out.”

“I don’t think-” Natalie began, but Isaac already had his claws out and tried to swipe him across the chest, only for the unconscious boy to grab his arm, seemingly in his sleep, and squeeze hard enough that Isaac gave a gasp of pain and his bones cracked loudly enough for them all to hear.

Isaac got free of his hold, cradling his arm and moving away quickly, breathing out sharply through his mouth with every exhale.

“Okay,” Stiles said, pointing at them all, “No one does _anything_ like that again, okay?” Erica nodded, Isaac was too distracted by his fractured arm to say anything. Natalie never had any intentions of touching Jackson to begin with.

Isaac was still slumped slightly, his injured arm held against his chest. Natalie raised her hand hesitantly. She could sap his pain, but would it be too obvious that it was her doing? Would he know? Well, he’d find out soon enough anyway. If she helped Derek during the full moon, she couldn’t keep it hidden much longer. She rested her hand on his shoulder, fingertips at the back of his neck, just above the neck of his shirt. He glanced up at her, not seeming to realize what she was doing, though his pained breaths calmed.

“It’ll heal fast enough.” She remarked.

“I thought the ketamine was supposed to put him out.” Isaac said, looking up at Stiles.

“Yeah, well apparently this is all we’re gonna get. So let’s just… hope that whoever’s controlling him just decided to show up tonight.” Stiles said slowly.

Stiles looked over at Isaac, but their attention was quickly drawn to Jackson, who had begun to speak with a weird, possessed-like voice, his eyes open, but mostly showing whites.

“ _I’m here. I’m right here with you_.”

“Well fuck,” Isaac breathed.

Stiles moved forward nervously, crouching slightly to be at Jackson’s eye level. “Jackson, is that you?”

“ _Us_.” The possessed voice replied. “ _We’re all here_.”

Stiles looked over his shoulder at the other three briefly. “Are you the one killing people?”

“ _We’re the ones killing murderers_.”

“So then, all the people you’ve killed so far-”

“ _Deserved it_.”

“See, we’ve got a little rulebook that says you only go after murderers.”

“ _Anything can break if enough pressure’s applied_.”

“So the people you’re killing are all murderers, then?” Stiles demanded disbelievingly.

“ _All. Each. Every one_.”

“Well who did they murder?”

“ _Me_.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Clearly, this was not the expected response.

“ _They murdered me_.”

Jackson began to shift, his skin growing scaled and his eyes becoming yellow and serpentine.

“Okay, _ketamine_ ,” Stiles said sharply, “The man needs ketamine.”

Isaac held up the empty bottle, “There is no more.” He said.

“You used the _whole bottle_?” Stiles prompted.

Erica smacked his arm. Jackson was standing up.

“Okay, everyone out!”

They all ran out the door and slammed it behind themselves, leaning against it, Isaac said something about finding something to put in front of it, but the Kanima tore through the side of the building in that instant and took off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout this time to istodaygood for kudos, as well as all the guests that left kudos & comments! I LOVE getting the comments from y'all. It makes my day!


	36. Chapter 36

Something about the house had started to feel… wrong. Somehow… unhealthy. And Natalie couldn’t figure out what it was. She wanted to say that it was a smell that had permeated the home, and while that may have been part of it, she also felt it like a gut instinct.

It set her on edge, and she found it hard to stay there for very long at a time. She ended up lingering at the school, studying at Lydia’s, hell- she had even met up with Scott and Stiles after school to practice lacrosse. _Anything_ to get out of the house.

“So we just want to pretend that Natalie didn’t hear Derek say that Scott was dying?” She said, chucking the lacrosse ball at Stiles, who might have caught it if it weren’t aimed at his face, so instead he just ducked out of the way and looked at her, offended. “Or that you still haven’t said _anything_ about what you were doing while we were babysitting a killing machine.” She turned her annoyed gaze onto Scott.

“Look, there was a lot going on-” Stiles started to say.

“ _Don’t_ start, Stilinski.” She snapped at him. He stopped mid-word and gave a limp shrug before looking at Scott, palms up.

Scott was hitting a ball across the ground with the end of the lacrosse racquet while he considered his next words. “Did you know that your uncle brought an entire _arsenal_ with him?” He said finally, looking up at her.

Her shoulders fell slightly and she stared at him for a second. Long enough for Stiles to hurl a ball at her and smack her in the arm. “ _Stiles_!” She hissed, glaring at him for a second.

“Payback.” He said, taking a couple steps backwards.

She set her jaw and looked back over at Scott. “I knew there were guns missing. I guess I didn’t think they’d go after you so hard.”

“Boyd had eight bullets dug out of him.” Scott added.

She looked away and took in a deep breath, twisting her lacrosse stick. “He’s fine now, though-”

“Yeah.” Scott assured her. “Doctor Deaton stitched us all up.”

She felt like there was still something they weren’t saying, but she did feel satisfied with the amount of information she’d gotten. If the night had been as bad for them as it felt for her, she decided it wasn’t worth pushing.

“Good.” She said, fishing the ball that had hit her back into her racquet and raising it to pass to Scott.

“Anyways-” Stiles began as they kept tossing the lacrosse ball around, “On a slightly less gruesome note- Lydia’s birthday party-”

Natalie pressed her lips together and took a couple strides back before whipping the ball at Scott, who caught it easily. She also didn’t particularly want to talk about Lydia’s birthday. She was upset with herself for not realizing that the full moon was also Lydia’s seventeenth birthday.

“Do you know what she would want? You know, like a gift?” Stiles pressed on. “Or should I even do a gift? Would it be too much- ?”

“Stiles, I am _almost_ the last person you should be asking about what to do for Lydia’s happiness.” She said.

“Well, you’re like one of her best friends, right?” He asked.

“Yeah, one of her friends that has pissed her off like a half dozen times in the last two months.” She countered, catching the ball as he threw it to her. “Seriously, I wouldn’t take my advice.”

“Can you ask Allison?” He suggested.

“I am not going to be your wingman, Stiles.” She said, passing to Scott. “You already have one.” She gestured at Scott with her racquet.

“Well, apparently I need two.” He muttered, “Or twenty.”

“C’mon, man-” Scott started to say.

“Just focus on being her friend first, yeah?” Nat said, “Stop overthinking it.”

* * *

“Is your plan literally just to chain them up and hope for the best?” She asked, leaning into the subway car and seeing how the chains had been splayed out in three distinct spots, the places Derek had deemed structurally sound enough to hold the three wolves down – for a while, anyway.

“Do you have a better plan?” Derek asked slowly, knowing already that her answer would be negative.

She looked around one last time and leaned back out, resting her back against the side of the car. “I just feel like there has to be a better way-”

“If you want to create some foolproof werewolf containment solution, be my guest.” He told her snidely. “But this is the best we have to work with right now.”

She exhaled deeply out her nose and looked off at the trunk that had contained all of the restraints.

“Are you still waiting until you turn into something with fangs and claws to tell them what you are?” He prompted.

“ _If_ I do.” She said hesitantly.

“ _If_ ,” He repeated, “What does that mean?”

She chewed the inside of her lip and refused to meet his eyes. “About the whole, _turning_ thing.” She began.

“Deponte, this is not the time to be telling me important things you should have mentioned before.” He said severely, stepping into her peripheral.

“I can’t really… control the shift.” She said, then looked at him, only to immediately look away again. “Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes I don’t know how to change back.”

He just looked at her for a moment. “No one ever taught you?”

“Who was there to teach me?” She responded sharply. He arched his brows. Apparently that hadn’t occurred to him. “My parents were both dead before I could hold my own head up, the Deponte’s would never let me within the same sentence as my father’s family. The only information we had was in the bestiary, and that was incomplete at best, mostly about strengths and weaknesses-”

“I can teach you.” He cut across her.

“I hate to break it to you, Derek, but my shift isn’t exactly the same as yours.”

“Same concept.”

“I don’t always know _what_ I’m turning into until it’s already happened…” She explained urgently. “I panic.”

“So it’s probably important that we do this before the full moon.” He reasoned.

She stared at him. “The full moon is _tomorrow_ , how exactly do you plan-”

He seized her wrist and yanked her away from the car – hard. Her relatively small frame was tossed across the floor, landing in a heap. She scrambled up to her feet, seething. Her hazel eyes had already melted into a vivid silver.

“ _Hale_ , you fucking-” She lunged at him as he charged at her.

Her hand shot at his throat, but he grabbed her fist and twisted, spraining the muscles in her wrist. “ _Shift_!” He demanded.

She cried out, but kicked a knee up at his abdomen. He released her hand, only long enough to sink his claws into her shoulder. She snarled in pain.

The change tore through her like a thousand hot irons, her skin shimmering and shifting as it transformed from pale and soft into a golden coat of fur, massive paws thumped the concrete floor as the new physicality of Natalie Isserman leapt, a strong and lean lion barreled into Derek. He swiped at the big cat with his claws, but they were both already knocked off balance. He fell against the pillar behind him as the lioness regained her feet and crouched facing him, teeth bared in a vicious snarl before stalking towards him, eyes glowing bright silver. It was clear that she was favoring her right front paw.

He straightened up, the glow fading from his eyes as his claws and fangs retreated. “Was that so hard?”

The lioness growled at him, but looked away, treading off to his right.

“You won’t be able to shift back until you calm down.” He told her.

The cat turned around and started pacing back, lips curled away from her teeth, ears pinned back.

“Deponte.” He warned her.

A loud, angry noise escaped the cat, though she did cease pacing and sat down.

“Relax. _Feel_ for the shift. Hold on to it.” He watched her for several minutes as the cat’s eyes slid closed.

It started as a white-hot knife in her side. She grabbed at that pain and held on dear life. It spread, the fur of this form quivering before giving way to a spread of alabaster skin. Despite how much the shift hurt, her relief was numbing. She looked down at her hands as the last of the change dissipated, one of her wrists swollen, bruised, and painful, her eyes still an unnatural silver.

“I’m back.” She breathed.

Something was thrust towards her face and she looked up to see Derek holding his jacket out to her, looking off at the subway car. Her excitement over controlling her shift had almost allowed her to forget that her clothes were likely now lying shredded and useless on the cement floor. She took the jacket from him and slipped her arms into it before getting to her feet. She shoved her hands into the pockets and wrapped it across her front. It landed nearly halfway down her thighs, but she still felt naked as she leaned against one of the pillars.

“Thanks.” She said.

He looked at her again now, apparently assuming that her speech meant she was covered. “You can’t get overwhelmed like that-”

“Last time I shifted, it took me over eight hours to change back.” She told him. “The time before that it was five.”

“You’re just scaring yourself out of it-”

“You’re fucking right I am.” She snapped. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.” She gritted her teeth and looked away.

“That’s why you need to listen to me.” He said, moving towards her. She looked up at him irritably. “When I tell you to do something, _do it_ , don’t just growl at me-”

The door up the stairs creaked open and she muttered a curse under her breath as she stared at him with wide eyes. He glanced up at the top of the steps, then back at her.

“Stiles is at Scott’s and they’re playing shitty music,” Isaac’s voice met them before Derek could actually see him coming down to the subway level. “I hope it’s okay if I work on my essay here until-” He was only a couple steps from the bottom before he actually looked over and saw Derek and Natalie, who was clothed in nothing but the leather jacket that was very obviously Derek’s, standing only a foot or so from each other.

 _Fucking_ palpitations.

“That’s fine.” Derek said, stepping away, towards the stairs. “I was leaving anyway.”

He was going to let Nat try to explain the situation to Isaac. “ _Derek_.” She hissed.

“Have fun.” Derek added as he brushed past Isaac and disappeared up the steps. Natalie thudded her head against the pillar hard enough that little black and white dots danced behind her eyelids. She heard a door close, and a couple footsteps.

“He’s like, twenty-three.” Isaac commented.

She opened her eyes again and saw him leaning against the bottom of the stairs, looking like he was caught somewhere between going back up the steps and pretending none of this ever happened and actually talking to her to see what was going on. " _Nothing_ is happening between me and Derek.” She said severely.

“Really?” He asked sharply. “Are you wearing anything else under that?”

A muscle jumped in her jaw and she didn’t say anything. She looked off towards the train on the opposite wall.

“Natalie-” He began.

“He’s just helping me-” She broke off when Isaac merely looked at her with raised eyebrows. Helping her with what? The shift that he didn’t actually know she possessed? Homework? An itch she couldn’t scratch? God, she wanted to claw her face off. “I don’t have a good excuse yet-”

He nodded, “Convenient.”

“ _Christ_.” She hissed under her breath. “Isaac, I can’t- tell you yet.” She said, looking up at the light fixture on the ceiling between them. “But I promise that the most that is happening between me and Derek is me punching him in the throat.” She pulled her left hand from her pocket and held it up. The joint of her wrist was black and blue from the pulled muscles, but was healing quickly. Faster than usual. The shift, she realized, must accelerate her already rapid healing.

He seemed to consider that for a moment. Why did she need to justify herself, anyway? What did it matter if Isaac thought she was messing around with Derek? Well, other than the implication of pedophilia, since she hadn’t yet turned eighteen.

But really, what did she need to defend after the way he was all over Erica at the rave last week?

She immediately regretted that thought, though, when she realized how _jealous_ it sounded. She wasn’t _jealous_. She was pissed that he had the nerve to be upset about whatever he was trying to accuse her of.

“You know what?” She said, moving to step around him, “Doesn’t matter.”

“You’ll be here tomorrow, right?” He asked hesitantly.

She paused and looked back at him, “Yeah.”

It looked like he wanted to say something, but decided against it, “See you tomorrow, then.” He said instead.

“Yeah, see you.” She said and went up the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awkward bbs...


End file.
